Home Secretary Amber Rudd's recent speech delivered to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham on foreign workers is being treated as a "hate incident" by the police, according to The Independent. However, the police aren't treating the incident as a criminal offence.
What Rudd said
Speaking in front of the Conservative Party members in October 2016, Amber Rudd announced that the Conservative party aimed to control immigration into into the United Kingdom following a vote to leave the European Union in July. In her speech, Rudd stated: "British business have been the driving force behind economic recovery.
However, we still need to do more, so all British people get the opportunities that they are entitled to. We [The Conservative party] are looking to implement a test that will ensure immigrants coming here wont be taking jobs that British people could have. We need an immigration system that provides incentives for business to invest in British workers".
During the conference, news coverage focused on comments made by her spokesperson that didn't appear in Amber Rudd's speech. Her spokesperson suggested that all businesses in the United Kingdom should keep records of employees not of British origin.
Non-crime related hate incident
The West Midlands Police Force follows the guidance outlined by the Police Chiefs Council which states: "Where any person, including police personnel, reports a hate crime which would not be the primary responsibility of another agency, it must be recorded regardless of whether or not they are the victim, and irrespective of whether there is any evidence to identify the hate element of the speech."
Dr Joshua Silver, a physics professor at the University of Oxford, reported Amber Rudd's conference speech to the police.
"I felt that politicians have been utilising Hate speech in order to turn Britons against foreigners, and I thought that is not lawful". The West Midlands Police responded by informing Dr Joshua Silver that Amber Rudd's speech has been "recorded in line with the National Police Chiefs' Council manual as a non-crime related hate incident".
