Racism
unleashed: True extent of the 'explosion of blatant hate' that
followed Brexit vote revealed
Exclusive:
Prime Minister accused of helping create the 'hostile environment'
that paved the way for 'F*** off to Poland' messages, excrement
through letter boxes, and racist abuse from children as young as ten
Adam Lusher
The full extent and
true nature of the “blatant hate” that has beset post-Brexit
Britain is today detailed for the first time after The Independent
was given exclusive access to a database of more than 500 racist
incidents compiled in the weeks since the EU referendum.
The hatred that has
divided British society in the past month features “F*** off to
Poland” letters in Tunbridge Wells, wealthy London diners refusing
to be served by foreign waiters, dog excrement shoved through letter
boxes in Rugby, and racist abuse from children as young as ten.
A picture of
nationwide hatred emerged after The Independent was allowed exclusive
access to a database of accounts collected by the social media sites
PostRefRacism, Worrying Signs and iStreetWatch.
What the social
media sites in their own report describe as an “explosion of
blatant hate” has included:
* Gangs prowling the
streets demanding passers-by prove they can speak English
* Swastikas in
Armagh, Sheffield, Plymouth, Leicester, London and Glasgow.
* Assaults, arson
attacks and dog excrement being thrown at doors or shoved through
letter boxes.
* Toddlers being
racially abused alongside their mothers, with children involved as
either victims or perpetrators in 14 per cent of incidents.
* A man in Glasgow
ripping off a girl’s headscarf and telling her “Trash like you
better start obeying the white man."
* Comparisons with
1930s Nazi Germany and a crowd striding through a London street
chanting: “First we’ll get the Poles out, then the gays!”
Read more
Incident by incident
– the grim litany of post-Brexit hate crime
And in their own
report – written with the support of the Institute of Race
Relations – the three social media groups accuse the Prime Minister
Theresa May of helping create the “hostile environment” that
paved the way for post-referendum racism.
Criticising Ms May’s
record as Home Secretary, and in particular her endorsement of
advertising vans telling illegal immigrants “Go Home or face
arrest”, the authors of Post-referendum racism and xenophobia say:
“If a hostile environment’ is embedded politically, it can’t be
a surprise that it takes root culturally.”
Singling Ms May out
as one of those who helped create such a ‘hostile environment’,
the report recalls that in 2012, Ms May, the then Home Secretary,
used a newspaper interview to declare: “The aim is to create here
in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration.”
The report says:
“This was brought to fruition in July 2013 when the Home Office
deployed mobile advans in six London boroughs telling people to ‘GO
HOME or face arrest’ in its 'Operation Vaken'.”
It adds, pointedly:
“Around a quarter of the incidents recorded in our database,
specifically use the words ‘Go Home’ or ‘Leave’.
“It is not
unreasonable to see the Vote Leave campaign, with its central focus
on immigration, as a continuation of this politically mainstream,
hostile stance towards immigration and xeno-racist narratives.”
The report’s
criticism of Ms May was echoed by the shadow Home Secretary Andy
Burnham, who told The Independent: “It is clear that the Government
has contributed to the unwelcoming climate and that our new Prime
Minister in particular is responsible .
“This has been
building for some time and Theresa May was blowing a dog whistle when
she commissioned those ad vans. After the referendum she added to the
problem by refusing to guarantee EU nationals legal status to stay in
the UK.
“Her failure to do
that has left children being told to go home in their school
playgrounds and in the streets where they live. This Prime Minister
promised to pull the country together, but her actions have done the
opposite.”
He added: “This is
not the Britain we have known. This is not ‘taking our country
back’. It is making Britain a completely different place to the one
we have known and loved.”
The database shows
that since the 23 June referendum, virtually no corner of the UK has
been left untouched by racism - even areas that voted strongly to
stay in the EU. The database includes incidents such as a Polish
doctor treating patients in a hospital in Oxford, a city where more
than 70 per cent voted remain, being told to “f***ing go back to
where you belong.”
While 76 per cent of
incidents were restricted to verbal abuse, 14 per cent of cases
involved threatened or actual physical violence.
In Yeovil, Somerset,
a Polish man was asked to prove he could speak English and then
beaten to the point of suffering a potentially life-changing eye
injury.
The involvement of
children as victims and perpetrators was described by the authors of
Post-referendum racism and xenophobia as “one of the most alarming
and least expected trends”.
A two and a
half-year-old Polish girl walking with her mother through a park in
Croydon, south London, was told by a 60-something grandfather: “We
voted to leave so why the f*** don't you go home? None of us want you
here.”
In Taunton Deane,
Somerset, a 10-year-old told their German teacher: “I’m not doing
what a bloody foreigner tells me to.”
Nor was the racism
restricted to people who could be categorised as frustrated and
socially excluded.
In an expensive
restaurant in Mayfair, London, on the day the referendum result was
announced, a party of celebrating Brexiteers refused to be served by
an Italian and demanded an English waiter.
An online booking
for another top London restaurant included the demand: “I want
British waiter please. Don’t send any Europeans to my table.”
One of the most
disturbing aspect of the incidents examined by The Independent
involved signs that some racists saw themselves as preparing to
extend their attacks to other minority groups.
The database records
a crowd walking down Drury Lane, London, chanting: “First we’ll
get the Poles out, then the gays!” Reporting an attack on a
Romanian lesbian in Oxford, the actress Juliet Stevenson suggested
the incident showed “Strains of 1930s Nazi Germany”.
Ms Komaromi, an
academic researcher who helps run the PostRefRacism twitter page,
told The Independent: “The referendum result emboldened some people
because it made them think that everyone agrees with them now.”
Her report also
claims that elements of mainstream politics and media has for years
been creating an environment that encourages racist feelings.
It states: “The
rapid rise and the nature of hate crime following the referendum is
an expression of the ‘hostile environment’ [that] the ‘insiders’
vs ‘outsiders’ rhetoric, increasingly prevalent in mainstream
politics and the media, has fostered.
“As Liz Fekete,
director of the Institute of Race Relations puts it: 'One of the
things that has become clear is that the hostile environment that has
been an official aim of policy for the last few years is coming home.
If a ‘hostile environment’ is embedded politically, it can’t be
a surprise that it takes root culturally.'”
The report adds:
“While Islamophobic scaremongering was central to the Leave
Campaign, it has been increasingly normalised in the mainstream media
and politics in the UK since 9/11 … Zac Goldsmith’s recent
controversial mayoral campaign and his attempt to paint Sadiq Khan as
a ‘closet extremist’ are indicative of the patent islamophobia in
mainstream politics.”
The report also
accuses the Brexit campaign - which placed heavy emphasis on taking
back control of immigration - of “demonising migrants” and
fostering “an idea of ‘Englishness that is exclusively white and
Christian, targeting anyone who is different”
While criticising
leading Brexiteers Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, it reserves its
harshest comments for the ‘Breaking Point’ poster unveiled by the
then Ukip leader Nigel Farage. It calls it the most obvious example
of “the de-humanisation of migrants, and particularly refugees.”
The result seems to
have been that while 51 per cent of abusers specifically mentioned
the EU referendum, the most commonly targeted ethnic group was in
fact people of South Asian, rather than European origin. And around
one fifth of the abuse aimed at people of South Asian origin was
Islamophobic.
We are clear
that it is completely unacceptable for people to suffer abuse or
attacks because of their nationality, ethnic background or colour of
their skin. We will not stand for it
Home Office
spokesperson
The post-referendum
racism report comes days after the Government launched a new hate
crime action plan in response to public anxiety at the hostility seen
since 23 June. Launching the plan, which will include fresh guidance
to the CPS and a £2.4 million fund for security at synagogues,
mosques and churches, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: “Hatred
against any community, race or religion has no place whatsoever in
our diverse society. We are Great Britain because we are united by
values like democracy, free speech, mutual respect and opportunity
for all.”
Stressing that Ms
May’s measures as Home Secretary had been directed at illegal –
not legal – migrants, a Home Office spokesperson said: “It is
categorically untrue to say the Home Office has called for a hostile
environment for immigrants. However, the British public expect us to
take decisive action to prevent immigration abuse and make it harder
for people to enter or live here illegally. That is why we have
introduced new legislation through the Immigration Acts in 2014 and
2016.
“We are also clear
that it is completely unacceptable for people to suffer abuse or
attacks because of their nationality, ethnic background or colour of
their skin. We will not stand for it. That is why we have launched
our new Hate Crime Action Plan, setting out the robust and
comprehensive steps we will take to eradicate hate crime.”
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