The number of hate crimes leaped by 41% in the month after the vote to leave the European Union, new Home Office statistics confirm.
A daily breakdown of the hate crime offences reported to the police showed the number of incidents doubled in the days after the referendum. The level peaked at 207 incidents on 1 July, twice as many as before the vote, when the level was already unusually high.
In July, there were 5,468 hate crimes – 41% higher than July 2015. A Home Office report on the data noted that the “sharp increase” in hate crime was not replicated in equivalent offences at the time.
Home Office stats show hate crime doubled in the days after the Brexit vote pic.twitter.com/dnB0egugbi
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“These increases fit the widely reported pattern of an increase in hate crime following the EU referendum,” it said.
David Issac, chair of he Equality and Human Rights commission said the figures “make it very clear that some people used the referendum result to justify their deplorable views and promote intolerance and hatred.”
He called for collective effort “bring the country back together.”
Data from 31 police forces showed that in the two weeks up to and including the day of the referendum on 23 June, forces recorded 1,546 racially or religiously aggravated offences.
In the fortnight immediately after the poll, the number climbed to 2,241. There was an increase in racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded in June, followed by an even sharper rise in July 2016.
Levels of hate crime and racist incidents have since declined but remain significantly higher than last year. Overall, there were 52,465 incidents of hate crime in the year ending March 2016, an increase of 19% on the previous year.
Despite the increases, the report confirmed that police chiefs will no longer collate weekly figures, because by August this year the levels of hate crime returned to those seen earlier in 2016.
The report says: “This analysis shows a clear increase following the referendum result. The number of racially or religiously aggravated offences then falls during August, with the number of offences at the end of August at a similar level seen prior to the referendum.”
The figures are the most detailed confirmation of a post-referendum spike in hate crime.
The home secretary, Amber Rudd, said: “Hatred has no place in a Britain that works for everyone and we are determined to stamp it out.”
In a press briefing, the Home Office claimed the increase was largely a result of more people reporting hate crime and better police recording.
Rudd added: “I am pleased to see government action is working and that more victims are finding the confidence to come forward to report these crimes.”
“Our hate crime laws are among the best in the world, but we cannot be complacent. Our Hate Crime Action Plan, published in July, sets out how we are further reducing hate crime, increasing reporting and improving support for victims.”
The Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, Alistair Carmichael, said the spike in hate crime was due “to the nasty, divisive European referendum campaign”.
He said: “[Ukip leader Nigel] Farage stood next to dehumanising posters that depicted people as hordes and then stood back shocked that their fanning the flames of prejudice had a reaction.
“Our government is treating the post-referendum landscape in the same divisive way. Telling 16 million people they are ‘citizens of nowhere’ is beneath contempt and not a way to treat those who believe Britain should be at the heart of Europe.”
The figures come after a series of reports of an alarming increase in various forms of hate crime in the wake of the referendum.
On Sunday, the LGBT anti-violence charity Gallop reported a 147% increase in crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Last month, Britain’s most senior police officer, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, said the “horrible spike” in hate crime after the vote was at least partly linked to the referendum.
A survey by the Guardian found that European embassies in Britain had logged dozens of incidents of suspected hate crime and abuse against their citizens since the referendum.
The vast majority of incidents involved citizens from eastern European countries, with more attacks against Poles than against all other nationalities put together.
They include the killing of Arkadiusz Jóźwik in Harlow in an apparently unprovoked attack that is being treated by police as a possible hate crime. A second Polish man survived the attack.
