The Guardian has directly linked Brexit to colonialism and slavery, claiming “the surge in hate crime since the Brexit vote is one legacy of an overlooked period of British history”.

“The processes by which Africans became ‘negroes’ who became ‘slaves’, took place across the African coast, on the slave ships, and on the plantations of the Caribbean”, the article states.

Written by ‘feminist historian’ Catherine Hall, it informs readers that “thousands of white Britons were directly implicated in the exploitation of enslaved Africans”.

“My work as a historian has convinced me that ways of thinking about race are the most destructive legacy of Britain’s imperial past”, she adds, before, with no clear link, bringing this exercise in white guilt to bear on the 17.5 million people who voted to leave the European Union (EU).

“In the wake of the Brexit vote we have witnessed a deeply disturbing increase in the number of hate crimes committed against Poles, Muslims and racial minorities,” she claims.

Adding: “The legacy of slavery is the dehumanisation of others and assumptions of white superiority, as well as terrible disparities of wealth and power. These could not be starker than they are today.”

British police classify a hate crime as “any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person” as a hate crime. The vast majority of hate crime reports are logged online, with no hard evidence, and are merely “offensive” comments.

Irrespective of whether harsh words have a moral equivalence to slavery, the Brexit hate crime ‘epidemic’ has been since debunked as a politically-motivated myth.

The claim is based on one line from a single press release issued by the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) on June 27th. In the four days immediately after the vote, online reports had “risen 57 per cent” — to a grand total of 85 complaints.

At the time, pro-EU campaigners were mobilising tens of thousands of people on social media to report stories and “perceived” slights that they could forward to the press and blame on Brexit.

This was acknowledged by police. The same NPCC document also said forces recorded “no major spikes in tensions” after the vote. In fact, prosecutions for hate crimes have actually fallen since June.