Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to increase in hate crime, said:

“It’s a shocking indictment of this government that all types of recorded hate crime have at least doubled under the Tories. The rise in some categories of hate crime is even worse.

“It was the Tories who cut the police, and let down whole communities. But it has also been the incendiary words of politicians who have created a toxic atmosphere, including the Prime Minister whose comments comparing Muslim women to ‘bank robbers’ and ‘letterboxes’ took place while Islamophobic hate crime is rising. Ministers should accept that they bear a major responsibility for these terrible trends.”

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Notes to Editors: