Report: Former UK PM Cameron fuelled xenophobia

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron and UKIP MEP Nigel Farage are among the British politicians accused of fuelling rising xenophobia in the UK, a report by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) revealed yesterday.

In the past year there has been a rise in Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and xenophobic attacks in Britain made worse by the Brexit referendum. Police recorded 52,528 hate motivated criminal offences in 2014-15, yet around half of these went unprosecuted as no suspect was identified and the case was closed.

The report highlighted “considerable intolerant discourse” from politicians and the media on immigration, which has used terms such as “invasions”, “floods” and “benefits tourism”. It condemned Cameron’s description of migrants during the Calais crisis in 2015 when he spoke of “a swarm of people” crossing the Mediterranean to get jobs in Britain.

The report also drew attention to Sun columnist Katie Hopkins who likened refugees to cockroaches and a headline run by the newspaper which claimed “1 in 5 Brit Muslims’ sympathy for jihadis”.

“Muslims are similarly portrayed in a negative light by certain politicians,” the report said. It singles out Farage’s claim that there was “public concern about immigration partly because people believe there are some Muslims who want to form a fifth column and kill us.”

Lack of integration and the opposition to British values, which leads to radicalisation and extremism, is a common theme that “contributes to a climate of mistrust and fear of Muslims” said ECRI. In 2016 Cameron launched a £20 million language fund for Muslim women which he said would counter “backward attitudes” and extremism.

The ECRI’s UK report said that public attitudes such as these are contributing to a rise in hate crimes against Muslims, Jews, refugees and immigrants. “It is no coincidence that racist violence is on the rise in the UK at the same time as we see worrying examples of intolerance and hate speech in newspapers, online and even among politicians,” ECRI chair, Christian Ahlund, said.