Hate crime has hit a new record after racially-motivated incidents rocketed during Black Lives Matter protests and a far-right backlash.
Police recorded over 124,000 hate crimes across England and Wales in the year to March, of which three-quarters were racial.
A Home Office report published on Tuesday said police have improved the way the crimes are recorded, but there have also been “short-term genuine rises in hate crime following certain trigger events”.
It added: “Increases in hate crime were seen around the EU referendum in June 2016 and the terrorist attacks in 2017. There was also an increase in public order hate crimes during the summer of 2020 following the widespread Black Lives Matter protests and far-right counter-protests.”
More than 92,000 race hate crimes were recorded in the year (74 per cent of all hate crimes), as well as 18,500 motivated by sexual orientation (15 per cent), 9,943 disability (8 per cent), 6,377 religion (5 per cent) and 2,799 transgender (2 per cent).
The overall figure was an increase of 9 per cent on the previous year, which was itself a record.
The largest proportionate rise was to race hate crime, up 12 per cent, while disability hate crimes increased by 9 per cent, sexual orientation hate crimes by 7 per cent and transgender identity hate crimes by 3 per cent.
Religious hate crimes fell by 18 per cent, in the second successive annual drop since a peak in 2019.
Figures showed that more than half of the hate crimes recorded by the police were for public order offences, including threatening and abusing people in public places, 40 per cent were for violence and 5 per cent were criminal damage and arson.
