Abbott condemned for blaming attack on Tories
DIANE Abbott was denounced as ‘sickening’ after she blamed Brexit and the Tories for the gang attack on the teenage asylum seeker in Croydon.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary sought political gain while the 17year-old Kurdish Iranian was fighting for his life in hospital.
After the brutal assault in South London, Miss Abbott blamed the Conservatives for the incident, saying: ‘Sadly, this is not an isolated incident but part of a sustained increase in hate crimes that this Tory Government is yet to offer any effective response to.
‘With Right-wing politicians across the world scapegoating migrants, refugees and others for their economic problems, we are seeing a deeply worrying rise in the politics of hate. We must make clear that there is no place for anti-foreigner myths, racism and hate in our society.’
Miss Abbott then went on Sky News to suggest Brexit had been a factor. ‘I’m not surprised in the attack because we have seen a rise in hate crime and anti-migrant feeling, particularly since Brexit,’ she said.
‘Much of the Brexit campaign was around fear of migrants, this
now is being reflected in the rise in hate crime.’
Chris Philp, the Tory MP for Croydon South, said it was ‘despicable’ to blame the referendum for the attack. ‘This is a sickening attempt by Diane Abbott to politicise what is an awful crime that has been condemned by people across the political spectrum,’ he said. ‘What she seems to be doing is to attribute blame for the rise in hate crime to political parties – that is completely unjustified and unreasonable.’