Call to combat racist abuse gets council backing

GATESHEAD councillors have vowed a new crackdown to combat “abhorrent” racist abuse.

The council unanimously backed a call for “unequivocal action to combat racism and xenophobia in all its forms” on Thursday, as the borough’s politicians shared harrowing stories of hate crimes.

Birtley councillor Catherine Davison told a full council meeting held at Gateshead Leisure Centre that her 11-year-old son had recently witnessed Polish classmates being verbally abused on a school bus by older pupils.

The Labour representative told colleagues that college-age students spouted “horrid” abuse at the younger children, travelling from an unnamed secondary school, telling them to “go home and that they should not be taking up seats on the bus from people who belong here”.

Coun Davison said she was “very proud” of her son for standing up to defend his friends during the incident “a few weeks ago” and that rising hate crime figures across the North East in recent years were “shameful”.

Northumbria Police statistics show that the number of recorded hate crimes in its force area increased from 2,638 in 2018 to 3,189 in 2020 - with race-related incidents jumping from 1,828 to 2,094 in that time, homophobic crimes from 339 to 559, and disability hate crimes from 272 to 403.

Further figures reveal that, in Gateshead specifically, the number of recorded hate crimes more than doubled from 174 in 2015 to 391 in 2019.

Thursday’s debate came on the back of a motion from fellow Birtley Labour councillor Paul Foy to mark the 25th anniversary of charity Show Racism the Red Card (SRTRC).

Coun Foy said that a partnership between the council and the charity since 2006 had resulted in thousands of people receiving racism and equalities training, but that “the fight against racism in our communities is far from over”.