Brexit vote unleashed 'explosion of blatant hate'

Britain's vote to leave the European Union has unleashed a wave of racist and xenophobic abuse, according to campaign groups tracking hate crimes across the country.

A database of offence committed in the weeks the 23 June referendum reveals an "explosion of blatant hate" across the country, says The Independent, which has been given exclusive access to the figures.

They show that "virtually no corner of the UK has been left untouched by racism - even areas that voted strongly to stay in the EU," the newspaper reports.

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Compiled by monitoring groups PostRefRacism, Worrying Signs and iStreetWatch, with the support of the Institute of Race Relations, the database paints a dark picture of post-referendum Britain.

The abuse includes reports of dog excrement thrown through letter boxes, gangs accosting people on the streets and demanding they prove they can speak English, and a group of wealthy diners in a Mayfair restaurant refusing to be served by an Italian waiter as they celebrated the referendum result.

In one case in Glasgow, a man reportedly ripped off a Muslim girl's headscarf and told her: "Trash like you better start obeying the white man." Another involved a crowd of people walking through a London street chanting: "First we'll get the Poles out, then the gays."

The rise of such sentiment is not coincidental, says Aditya Chakrabortty in The Guardian. "It's what happens when cabinet ministers, party leaders and prime-ministerial wannabes sprinkle arguments with racist poison" and "intolerance is not only tolerated, but indulged and encouraged"

The campaigners who compiled the data lay much of the blame on Theresa May, arguing that she helped create a "hostile environment" in which racism was allowed to thrive. They point to her endorsement as Home Secretary of advertising vans telling illegal immigrants "Go Home or face arrest" and say it "can't be a surprise" if that attitude takes root in society.

"Around a quarter of the incidents recorded in our database, specifically use the words 'Go Home' or 'Leave'," the groups said. "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 government this week unveiled a raft of new measures to tackle the rise in hate crimes, including extra funding for security at mosques and other religious centres and an assessment of how police respond to all forms of hate crime.

But Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, said it is too little, too late. "This has been building for some time May was blowing a dog whistle when she commissioned those vans," he said. "This Prime Minister promised to pull the country together, but her actions have done the opposite."