MPs lash out after cops log Amber Rudd’s immigration speech as hate incident

OUTRAGE erupted yesterday after cops logged a hardline immigration speech by Home Secretary Amber Rudd as a “hate incident”.

MPs leapt to the Cabinet Minister’s defence as West Midlands Police recorded a complaint from a University of Oxford professor.

Physics Professor Joshua Silver said politicians had been “using hate crime as an instrument to foster support” for their aims.

But he was later forced to admit he had not even watched the speech when it was delivered – at the Tory conference in Birmingham in October.

In the speech, Mrs Rudd set out measures to slash immigration, including tests to ensure migrants weren’t “taking jobs British people could do”.

The Sun was the first to reveal this could see firms could be ‘named and shamed’ over the number of foreign workers on their books.

The proposal sparked a furious reaction from business chiefs and human rights organisations and was soon dropped.

West Midlands Police yesterday said the complaint had to be recorded as a “non-crime hate incident” in accordance with the Home Office’s own guidelines.

But it admitted there was no evidence a hate crime had been committed.

The force currently has 362 unresolved murders on their books.

John Mann, Labour backbencher, yesterday stormed: “I didn’t agree with Amber Rudd. But this is nonsense and undermines actual race hate incidents.”

Matt Warman, Tory MP, added: “This is very clearly not a hate crime.

“It is a cynical attempt by an individual to use important legislation for his own political agenda.

The Home Secretary has been very clear – hate has no place in a country that works for everyone.”

Professor Silver told the BBC said he had “read the draft” of the speech.

He added: “And I’ve looked at all the feedback that there was to the speech.

“I’ve read the speech carefully and I’ve looked at all the feedback.

“It’s discriminating against foreigners, you pick on them and say we want to give jobs to British people and not to foreigners. It was interpretated that way.”

The Home Office insisted Amber Rudd had been “crystal clear” that hatred had “absolutely no place” in Britain.

It added: “This was not a hate crime.”

Former Tory leader Lord Howard added: “What Amber Rudd said was no different from Gordon Brown when he said there should be British jobs for British workers.

“Of course it wasn’t a hate incident.”