Don't Blame Brexit Voters For Hate Crimes, Urges Iain Dale

15 February 2017, 16:34 | Updated: 15 February 2017, 18:07

Iain Dale is furious that every one of 17.4m Leave voters is being held accountable for a post-Brexit spike in hate crime reporting.

There's been a big reaction all day to the big rise in hate crimes reported in the wake of last year's referendum, but Iain Dale says too much blame has been laid at the door of those who voted Leave.

"It's been said in quite a lot of the media that it's down to all Brexit voters, we are all to blame," said Iain, "I absolutely reject that.

"I voted Leave, I didn't vote for anyone to commit hate crimes. Some people may use the Brexit referendum as an excuse but frankly they're mindless boneheads who do this.

"They do not do it in my name and they do not do it in the name of anyone who voted Brexit."

Iain also questioned just how quickly the tag "hate crime" is attached to some of these reported incidents.

"Is it somebody just being a bit rude to someone, because that can be classed as a hate crime.

"I'm not seeking to minimise the importance of hate crimes. I wish we didn't have any hate crimes in this country. But to pretend we've only really had them since the referendum is just completely spurious."