Home Office say Brexit caused hate crime to spike

15 October 2019, 17:16

The Home Office has revealed reports of hate crime more than doubled since 2012/13 with a 10% increase in the last year.

Police forces across England and Wales reported 103,379 hate crimes in 2018/19. An increase of 10% on the previous year, which were more than double the 2012/13 figure of 42,255.

Of the 103,000 offences, three quarters were race related - while there was a jump of 37 percent in transgender identity hate crimes.

The Home Office said increases in hate crime over the last five years have been mainly driven by improvements in crime recording by the police.

They said there were "spikes in hate crime following certain events such as the EU Referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017."

The report said majority of hate crimes were race hate crimes, accounting for around three-quarters of offences (76%; 78,991 offences).

The sister of slain MP Jo Cox has said "everybody needs to take a step back" and think about how they behave. She said it didn't matter if people were politicians, journalists or social media companies.

Three years ago the MP Jo Cox was murdered by a far right terrorist. Her sister Kim Leadbeater said people need to look at how they can "detoxify the current level of debate."

A hate crime is defined as ‘any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.’