Extract from Business Statement in the Wales Assembly - Oct 23

And the facts are simple, that, since the referendum vote, the figures of race crime and hate crime have shot through the roof. Police figures obtained through a freedom of information request show that incidents surged by 23 per cent, Gwent being the biggest area that was affected, with a rise of 77 per cent—that's a 77 per cent rise in incidents from the previous year. That's an unparalleled rise during the time that these records have been kept. Now, those incidents reported in the past year included a Muslim woman being dragged along the pavement by her hijab, two Polish men being attacked in the street, resulting in the death of one of them, a Muslim man and woman being squirted with acid, leaving them with life-changing injuries—these are the most despicable crimes and they have been fuelled by racism and hatred towards the other. There is no area whatsoever in the UK that hasn't escaped these crimes, even those areas where they have voted very strongly to stay in the EU. And there were—76 per cent of incidents were restricted to verbal abuse; 14 per cent of cases involved threat of actual or physical violence. The statistics are extremely interesting. In terms of hate crime, 40 per cent of them are in terms of religion and over 50 per cent of them are against Muslim people, and just less than that against Jewish people. So, there's a real need, I feel, for us to take hold of this. I raise it now, because the police are bracing themselves for much more of the same and higher levels of incidents once we leave the EU.