Member of Parliament for Torfaen, and Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds has expressed his support for the Welsh Government’s ‘Hate Hurts Wales’ campaign which looks to raise awareness and the reporting of hate crimes across Wales.
Launching the anti-hate crime campaign on March 9th, Deputy Minister and Chief Whip Jane Hutt encouraged the people of Wales to support victims of hate crime and report incidents to the police or Victim Support Cymru: “The campaign aims to make clear that hate affects us all and undermines our shared values of common humanity. It’s also important that we ensure that victims and bystanders feel empowered to report hate crime, wherever they see it.”
Over the next few months, the ‘Hate Hurts Wales’ campaign will highlight, through social media and television, the real-life scenarios of hate crime that individuals have experienced in Wales over the last year.
Speaking in support of the Welsh Government’s campaign, Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “It is awful that there were 4,023 recorded hate crimes across the Welsh Police Force areas in 2019-20, any hate crime is one too many. I welcome the ‘Hate Hurts Wales’ campaign to combat hate crime in Wales, and to encourage anyone who witnesses a hate crime to report it.
Labour has consistently called on the UK Government to engage with every community that suffer from hate crime, and to establish a plan that reassures communities they are taking the rise in hate crime seriously.”