Diane Abbott: Labour will fight the far right and oppose dog-whistle politics

Hate crime is rising. The home office statistics published this week made for alarming reading. There were more than 80,000 incidents in the last recorded year, a 29 per cent rise on the previous year.

This is the biggest percentage increase seen since records began five years ago. The numbers show a large spike in incidents following the EU referendum and another spike after this summer’s terrorist attacks. Almost 80 per cent of the incidents recorded involved race-hate crimes. Rising hate crime is unacceptable, especially given the fall in prosecutions this year.

This comes within a week of the government publishing its race disparity audit. Its findings will not come as a surprise to anyone who faces racism. Inequalities facing Britain’s black and ethnic minority communities across the board have been studied and analysed for decades. The Tories have been in office for seven years but, in many instances, indicators on race equality have not improved and some have deteriorated. Racism takes many forms and many feel the situation is deteriorating.

Labour opposes dog-whistle politics on immigration and asylum. We will guarantee EU citizens’ rights so that they are not used as a bargaining chip during Brexit negotiations. As shadow home secretary I have called for Britain to take its fair share of refugees. I have visited many of the major refugee camps across Europe since the global refugee crisis became acute and the human cost is horrifying. Yet the Tories ended search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean and disgracefully failed to take in unaccompanied refugee children, at a time when the majority of the children entering Europe via Greece, Italy, Spain and Bulgaria, are either unaccompanied or separated. 

The world’s unprecedented natural disasters and ongoing conflicts will create more displaced people. This year nearly 3,000 people are dead or missing following perilous crossings entering Europe via the Mediterranean. This crisis has been deepened by governments of the west rejecting their basic humanitarian duties with the Tories among the worst culprits.

The rise of the far right across Europe arises within a hostile political climate which scapegoats migrants and Muslims. This is mirrored by Donald Trump’s notorious wall and the ban on Muslim countries which has emboldened the Ku Klux Klan, who actively defended the slave-era confederacy in Charlottesville, where an anti-racist protester was killed. The words “an injury to one is an injury to all” could not be more relevant than in the campaign against racism. Emboldened by a hostile climate against migrants and Muslims, the far right targets Jewish, Black, LGBT, disabled people and others. 

It has never been more important to have a broad, strong and unified anti-racist movement which opposes racism in all its forms, welcomes refugees and which opposes fascism. We must challenge every incidence of dog-whistle politics. This is why I am pleased to be speaking at the Stand Up To Racism national conference that will take place this Saturday in Central London. It will be addressing the key issues, including the need for a united response against terrorism in all forms without stigmatising communities, challenging the rise of the far right and fighting hate crime, building the “refugees welcome” movement and calling for justice for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and all those facing institutional racism.

Register for the conference here.

Diane Abbott is shadow home secretary and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.