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Racist or religious abuse incidents recorded by police in England and Wales jumped 41% in the month after the UK voted to quit the EU, figures show.
There were 3,886 such crimes logged in July 2015, rising to 5,468 in July this year, according to the Home Office.
It said the sharp increase declined in August but has "remained at a higher level than prior to the EU referendum".
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the government was "determined to stamp it out".
The number of hate crimes overall in the year 2015-16 was up 19% on the previous year.
Latest figures show that 62,518 offences were recorded by police.
Of these, 79% were motivated by race hate, 12% by sexual orientation, 7% by religion, 6% by disability and 1% were transgender hate crimes.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said the rise in hate crimes was "down to the nasty, divisive European referendum campaign that pulled apart communities, families and neighbours".
He claimed that the government has treated the post referendum landscape in "the same divisive way".
More @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37640982
Given the severity of this, I thought it deemed having its own topic!