George Bunn
Guest Reporter
Taxpayers' money has been spent teaching asylum seekers how to report hate crimes across Labour councils, it has emerged.
Local authorities have used public funding to pay for training days teaching refugees how to recognise and inform authorities of hate crimes.
The Labour-led Thurrock council, which received £530,000 in Government grants for refugee settlements since 2022, spent £180 on a "hate crime event" last year for newly arrived Afghans.
Liverpool City Council allocated £12,000 of grant funding to a project called Inclusive Understanding In Schools, which included teaching refugees how to report hate crimes.
The Home Office provides grant funding to councils to support new arrivals with housing and essential services. Salford City Council contributes £10,000 annually to the Salford Refugee and Asylum-seeking Forum for awareness-raising training on hate crime issues.
Labour-led Middlesbrough also provides hate crime events in partnership with emergency services and the police commissioner.
The disclosure follows recent revelations that councils have spent millions supporting refugee settlement, including providing DJ lessons and PlayStations.
Local authorities have also used Government money on additional services including driving lessons and yoga classes.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, condemned the training as a "complete waste of money".
"It is bad enough billions are being spent accommodating them in hotels without wasting even more of taxpayers' hard-earned money on fostering a grievance culture and actively encouraging complaints," he told The Telegraph.
Philp added that many new arrivals "have entered the UK illegally via small boat – from a safe country, France".
More than 150,000 people have arrived in the UK on small boats since 2018, with a record 52,739 people granted asylum in the year to last September. Hate crimes recorded by police have risen significantly over the past decade, from 40,000 in 2012/13 to 155,841 in 2021/2022.
In the year ending March 2024, police in England and Wales recorded 140,561 hate crimes. Islamophobic hate crimes increased by 13 per cent to 3,866, reaching the highest level on record. Anti-Semitic hate crimes saw an even sharper rise, surging by 113 per cent following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Angela Rayner is planning to create a council on Islamophobia to help develop an official government definition for anti-Muslim discrimination.
Essex Police provided some of the training on behalf of Thurrock council, teaching newly arrived Afghans how to recognise and report offences.
The force has offered various tutorials on hate crime, including instructing local "hate crime ambassadors" on issues like "micro-aggressions".
Essex Police previously came under scrutiny for investigating Telegraph writer Allison Pearson over allegations of stirring up racial hatred.
A hate crime is defined as any offence perceived by the victim or others to be motivated by hostility based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or being transgender.
Find Out More...
Local authorities have used public funding to pay for training days teaching refugees how to recognise and inform authorities of hate crimes.
The Labour-led Thurrock council, which received £530,000 in Government grants for refugee settlements since 2022, spent £180 on a "hate crime event" last year for newly arrived Afghans.
Liverpool City Council allocated £12,000 of grant funding to a project called Inclusive Understanding In Schools, which included teaching refugees how to report hate crimes.
The Home Office provides grant funding to councils to support new arrivals with housing and essential services. Salford City Council contributes £10,000 annually to the Salford Refugee and Asylum-seeking Forum for awareness-raising training on hate crime issues.
Labour-led Middlesbrough also provides hate crime events in partnership with emergency services and the police commissioner.
The disclosure follows recent revelations that councils have spent millions supporting refugee settlement, including providing DJ lessons and PlayStations.
Local authorities have also used Government money on additional services including driving lessons and yoga classes.
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Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, condemned the training as a "complete waste of money".
"It is bad enough billions are being spent accommodating them in hotels without wasting even more of taxpayers' hard-earned money on fostering a grievance culture and actively encouraging complaints," he told The Telegraph.
Philp added that many new arrivals "have entered the UK illegally via small boat – from a safe country, France".
More than 150,000 people have arrived in the UK on small boats since 2018, with a record 52,739 people granted asylum in the year to last September. Hate crimes recorded by police have risen significantly over the past decade, from 40,000 in 2012/13 to 155,841 in 2021/2022.
In the year ending March 2024, police in England and Wales recorded 140,561 hate crimes. Islamophobic hate crimes increased by 13 per cent to 3,866, reaching the highest level on record. Anti-Semitic hate crimes saw an even sharper rise, surging by 113 per cent following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Angela Rayner is planning to create a council on Islamophobia to help develop an official government definition for anti-Muslim discrimination.
Essex Police provided some of the training on behalf of Thurrock council, teaching newly arrived Afghans how to recognise and report offences.
The force has offered various tutorials on hate crime, including instructing local "hate crime ambassadors" on issues like "micro-aggressions".
Essex Police previously came under scrutiny for investigating Telegraph writer Allison Pearson over allegations of stirring up racial hatred.
A hate crime is defined as any offence perceived by the victim or others to be motivated by hostility based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or being transgender.
Find Out More...