Increase in school hate crimes amid Brexit

According to an investigation carried out by Schools Week, schools across the country have had a rise in racial hate crimes in the wake of Brexit.

Schools Week put in a freedom of information request to all 43 UK police forces asking how many facial hate crimes and arrests had been reported in schools in the past three financial years.

Of the 21 forces that provided data, 18 said that they had experienced a sharp increase in reports of hate crime.

Overall the figure had increased by 57 per cent from 271 in 2014-15, to 425 in 2016-17.

Arrests in schoolchildren relating to hate crime reports has also seen a 53 per cent increase from 45 in 2014-15, to 69 in 2016-17.

Weyman Bennett, the joint secretary of the Unite against Fascism campaign group, suggested the rise of racist attacks in schools is due to the EU referendum vote on June 23 last year, which led to Brexit.

He said: “The unpleasant tenor of much of the debate on migration in the run up to the referendum undoubtedly plays a part in fuelling such prejudice.”