Hate crime has reached record levels in Greater Manchester

Charity bosses and faith leaders have called for urgent action to tackle there record levels, with a rise in incidents showing no signs of slowing nationally, three years after the fractious EU referendum.

GMP recorded 8,984 hate crimes in 2018-19, the latest Home Office statistics show: up 14 per cent on the previous year. And the rise continues an upward trend seen since records began in 2012-13, when officers logged 3,122.

Reports can include racially or religiously-aggravated assault, harassment and criminal damage. Three-quarters of GM reports related to race and 15 per cent featured hostility towards religion. Across England and Wales, police recorded more than 103,000 hate crimes in the last year: a 10 per cent rise on the previous year’s figures, and more than double the 42,000 recorded in 2012-13.

The Home Office attributes this rise in part to improvements in the way crimes are recorded. Spikes in reporting after events such as the EU referendum in 2016 and terror attacks the following year also contributed, it said.

Another, unexplained jump over the summer of 2018, and again in January this year, however, may reflect a “real rise” in recorded hate crimes, statisticians added.

Asst Chief Con Mark Hamilton, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead on hate crime, said: “We recognise there are real divisions in our society at this time, and there is a responsibility on us all to think carefully and be temperate in how we communicate with each other to avoid escalating tensions or emboldening others.”

Citizens UK, an umbrella organisation of faith and community groups, said its research suggests levels of hate crimes are far higher than those recorded in official data.