EU Referendum: Race Hate Crime

Stephen Doughty Excerpts

Tuesday 5th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Yasmin Qureshi]

That is also the experience of so many of the constituents and other people who have written to me. That is why I am very grateful that I managed to get this Adjournment debate.

We have had words such as, “Go home, Polish vermin”, posted through the letterboxes of Polish residents in Cambridgeshire; heard of young Muslim school girls being cornered and intimidated, with people saying, “Get out, we voted leave” and “I can even give you a suitcase”; and seen signs in Newcastle urging the Government, “Stop immigration and start repatriation”, with words such as “This is England, we are white, get out of my country”.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend is making some strong, powerful and deeply disturbing points. Does she agree, though, that it is not just in the context of the referendum that we have seen hate crime increasing? I saw this horror in last year’s general election. In just one street in my constituency, somebody told me that that they would not vote Labour because all we did was support the N word, another person pointed to a black woman in the street and told her she should go home, another told me that gay people should be killed and sent to hell, there was a race hate attack in a fish and chip shop at the end of the road, and somebody said that we needed to stand up against the Jews. That was all in one street. Does she agree that this has been going on for some time? It has been a problem in the referendum, but it has been coming for a while.

[Yasmin Qureshi]

I absolutely agree. Later in my speech I will deal with fact that this has been going on for some time.

Since last week, I have been inundated with emails, tweets and messages detailing hundreds of horrific incidents that have taken place. I understand that since last Friday, True Vision, the Government website to combat hate crime, has recorded a fivefold increase in reports to the police from the public, with 331 incidents since the day the referendum was held. The weekly average used to be 63 reports. In my own region, Greater Manchester, there has been a 50% increase in the number of hate crimes reported in the past week. There has been a very famous incident on YouTube showing an American professor who was abused by people.

--- Later in debate ---

[Yasmin Qureshi]

I absolutely condemn the vitriolic abuse that the Polish community has received over the years. I would add to that that a lot of European nationals in this country are now very concerned about their status and their citizenship rights. I will ask the Minister to ensure that the Government deal with this issue fairly urgently to bring reassurance to a lot of EU nationals living in the United Kingdom.

The hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) claimed that Brexit would stop “uncontrolled immigration”, suggesting images of hordes of people rushing to our shores. During a televised EU debate, a member of the audience asked Mr Farage to explain how he would reduce racial tensions in the light of such rhetoric. Not only did he ignore her question, but later her Twitter timeline was filled with horrific abuse from his supporters. We must acknowledge that the abusers now feel more confident in making these claims because of Mr Farage’s frequent racist comments and claims that he can restore Britain’s place in the world.

[Stephen Doughty]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way again; she is being incredibly generous. She made a point about Twitter. Does she agree that social media companies and internet providers have a great deal of responsibility here? It is not easy enough to report or deal with hate crime, of all sorts, and the internet is currently filled with abuse, whether it is anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-gay or anti-women. Many Members of this Chamber have experienced that abuse in recent days, from the left and from the right, and the companies that are involved need to take a much firmer hand.

[Yasmin Qureshi]

I absolutely agree. It is so difficult to make a complaint. I am one of those people who can relate, on a personal level, the amount of abuse that I have received. When I tried to contact the organisations concerned, I got nowhere. It is important that we think about how we can regulate that and ensure that social media companies deal with these issues responsibly and monitor the posts that are being put on their sites. It seems that most of them completely fail to do that.

There have been constant calls that we are claiming our country back. After the Brexit campaign won, the first comment from Mr Farage was, “We have got our country back”, suggesting that it had been under the control of somebody else. These are the types of irresponsible comments that feed into people not liking immigrants—the “other”. Sadly, some senior politicians who perhaps should know better did the same, including the Prime Minister, when he talked last year about the “swarm” of migrants in Europe, and they have failed, time and time again, to stop the spread of such anti-immigrant feeling.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Doughty]

My right hon. Friend is making some strong points. Before he finishes, I want to agree with his point about Polish people in this country. I have Polish relatives, many of whom live in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi). I am horrified at some of the abuse that has been directed at the Polish community. Given what I said before about the impact of social media and the internet as a common theme running through everything I have seen in the last few years—whether it be this type of hate crime, hate crime directed at LGBT people, extremism, radicalisation for terrorism or the sectarianism we saw in the Scottish referendum that was also played out online—what does my right hon. Friend feel that social media and internet companies need to do?

[Keith Vaz]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the responsibility on social media and internet companies is massive. I cannot understand why companies that make millions of pounds cannot have dedicated teams to take down this hate immediately. Why should it be left for people to block those who write these racist comments? We have to be sitting and looking at our iPhones every single minute of the day to know what people are saying about us. I block a lot of people: I have some friends, but also some enemies on the internet. The fact is that those companies should be doing this, and if they do not do it, Parliament should legislate.

Let me conclude. The Select Committee decided unanimously on Wednesday to have an inquiry into hate crimes and violence. We heard the words of the Minister last week at the Dispatch Box, and I welcome what she said. I also welcome her personal commitment to this issue. I have been in the House for 29 years, and I know the difference between a Minister who comes to the Dispatch Box and just says what is in the brief and a Minister who comes to it but believes passionately that something must be done. The Minister does believe in this issue passionately. She believes in zero tolerance for racism and anti-Semitism; she wants to put in place an action plan to which we can all adhere; she wants consistency. That is what we all want.

The Minister will find this House united in support of what the Government propose, because there can never be any doubt that we stand united in support of all the communities who have come to this country since we have been in the European Union and the diaspora community that has settled here for many years, including my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South East, my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall South—my sister—and me. This is our country. I know this phrase has been used a lot, especially by Conservative leadership candidates, but I love this country, too, and I do not want anyone to say of us collectively that we tolerate racism, anti-Semitism or hate. We stand united to defeat them.