Largest police forces saw double increase in hate crimes as October 7 and Southport cause spikes

30 December 2024, 00:23

Some of the largest police forces in the UK have seen a double spike in types of religious hate crime in the past 18 months, with numbers jumping after the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in autumn 2023 and again following the Southport attacks this summer, figures reveal.

Antisemitic offences recorded by forces including Greater Manchester, West Midlands and the Metropolitan Police, rose sharply in the weeks following the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East in October last year.

The same forces then logged an increase in Islamophobic offences in the wake of the stabbings in Southport in July this year and the subsequent violent disorder in towns and cities.

A Jewish charity called the findings "unacceptable", while campaigners against anti-Muslim abuse said they were "not seeing the action to tackle this problem".

The Government said it was "determined to stamp out the toxic vitriol which is spread by a minority of people".

The figures have been obtained by the PA news agency using Freedom of Information requests. They show that:

- Greater Manchester Police recorded an average of 13 antisemitic offences per month from January to September 2023, then spikes of 85 in October and 68 in November, falling back in following months; Islamophobic offences averaged 35 a month in 2023 and 39 a month from January to July 2024, before a sharp jump to 85 in August then 21 in September.

- Antisemitic offences recorded by West Yorkshire Police averaged six a month from Jan-Sep 2023, jumped to 44 in October, then fell back to lower levels; Islamophobic offences averaged 33 a month in 2023 and 39 a month from Jan-Jul 2024, before rising to 94 in August then 73 in September.

- The British Transport Police recorded a monthly average of seven antisemitic offences in Jan-Sep 2023, followed by a jump to 60 in October and 70 in November, after which the numbers fell back; it also saw low numbers of Islamophobic offences each month (under 20) across this period, apart from spikes in November 2023 (42) and August 2024 (29).

- The Metropolitan Police changed the way it records hate crime at the end of February 2024 but, under the previous method, an average of 54 antisemitic offences were logged per month in Jan-Sep 2023, followed by a steep rise to 517 in October, 411 in November and 228 in December; while, under the new method, an average of 116 Islamophobic offences were recorded each month from Mar-Jul 2024, followed by 190 in August and 97 in September.

Other forces covering largely urban areas, such as Merseyside, South Yorkshire and West Midlands, saw a lower volume of these crimes overall but still recorded spikes in antisemitic offences in the autumn of 2023 and Islamophobic offences in the summer of 2024.

PA obtained full responses from 33 of the 40 forces operating across England, with the data representing a snapshot of what has been recorded.

Methods for capturing hate crime are not consistent across forces, so the data cannot be used to compare directly the number of offences between different areas or provide an overall total for the whole of England.

Data obtained from smaller forces, or those covering areas with few towns or cities, typically showed low numbers of offences, often in single figures, meaning a month-on-month trend was hard to determine.

But most forces saw a clear year-on-year increase in the total number of these crimes.

For example, Greater Manchester recorded 440 antisemitic offences in the 12 months to September 2024, up year-on-year from 153, along with 512 Islamophobic offences, up from 415.

West Yorkshire recorded 215 antisemitic offences and 561 Islamophobic offences in the 12 months to September, up year-on-year from 77 and 362 respectively, Avon & Somerset recorded 59 and 112, up from 41 and 57; and Humberside recorded 31 and 48, up from 17 and 25.

Dave Rich, spokesman for the Jewish charity, the Community Security Trust (CST), said: "These figures show similar trends as CST's own antisemitic data, with a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes following the October 7 attack last year to levels that have still not returned to what used to be considered 'normal'.

"The increases are even more shocking when set against the relatively small size of the Jewish communities in some of these places.

"This kind of anti-Jewish hatred should be unacceptable to all, and we will continue to work closely with police and the CPS up and down the country, alongside local Jewish communities, to reduce the impact of this hatred."

Hamas launched a series of attacks on southern Israel on October 7 2023, prompting Israel to launch a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Separately, riots and disorder broke out in parts of the UK after the knife attack at a Southport dance studio on July 29 2024 that left three girls dead.

Violent disturbances took place outside a mosque in Southport, a Holiday Inn Express in Manvers near Rotherham that was housing more than 200 asylum seekers, plus a hotel in Tamworth, while anti-immigrant demonstrations occurred in several cities including Bristol, Hull, Liverpool and London.

Iman Atta, director of Tell Mama which monitors anti-Muslim hate, said: "Anti-Muslim hate or Islamophobia spikes repeatedly when there are international issues and when there is far-right agitation, extremism, continued finger-pointing at a political level against Muslims, and even post the Brexit vote. So these figures are not surprising.

"We have assisted over 5,000 British Muslims this year and the number keeps rising.

"Yet we are not seeing the action needed to tackle this problem. In fact, we are seeing anti-Muslim hate or Islamophobia being treated as though it is not the significant problem it is."

Dame Diana Johnson, Home Office minister for policing, fire and crime prevention, said: "These numbers are deeply troubling. We are determined to stamp out the toxic vitriol which is spread by a minority of people, and perpetrators of hate crime should be in no doubt that they will face the full force of the law.

"The significant increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crime is very serious, which is why we have committed up to £47.4 million per year in protective security funding for Jewish and Muslim communities to 2027-28.

"We must have zero tolerance for antisemitism, Islamophobia and every other form of heinous hate in Britain, and we back the police in taking strong action against those targeting specific communities."