Racial Violence (Hansard, 9 December 1992)

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make racial violence a specific criminal offence; to make other related amendments of the law; and for connected purposes.

In the past few weeks, much attention has been given to racial violence abroad. The murder by neo-Nazi thugs of three Turkish females, two of them children, deeply shocked much of Europe. This week has seen the terrible outbreak of communal violence in India and surrounding areas. We do not yet know how many people have died on the Indian sub-continent since Sunday. The attacks—be they in Germany, in other parts of Europe or on the Indian sub-continent—have, in the main, been engineered by extremists, basically of the same kind, as we know only too well from pre-war Europe. Thugs are thugs, regardless of colour, nationality or religion.

We must also recognise, however, that although, fortunately, the problem here is by no means as alarming as in many places abroad, we, too, suffer from continuing racial violence—or, I should say, the victims suffer from it. It is ugly, brutal and deeply obnoxious. That is why I am asking the House today for permission to bring in a Bill to make racial violence a specific criminal offence in law.

Some may say that I am really referring to harassment or prejudicial remarks. That is not so, although racial harassment is ugly enough and there can be a thin dividing line between it and outright violence against the person. Nevertheless, I am referring to racial violence, and the picture is one that should cause concern to all of us—even on the figures supplied by the Home Office. The figures show an alarming increase in racial attacks. The official figures refer to nearly 8,000 racial attacks in a year. As the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department is listening, I must state that few would seriously dispute that the real figure is tragically far greater than that. Some people believe that there are as many as 50,000 or even 70,000 attacks in a given year motivated by outright racialism. That is a very serious situation.

During the past year at least four people—The Economist referred this week to nine people—have been murdered in Britain as a result of racist attacks. Someone was convicted recently of murdering a 15-year-old Asian boy during a burglary at an off licence. After his arrest, that person gave a nazi salute and called out "Sieg heil" twice as he was apprehended by police. So far, no one has been charged in respect of the brutal murder of a Tamil refugee who was allowed into this country as he was fleeing from terror. That youngster was put to death as a result of racism, the crime was undoubtedly racially motivated, and the sooner those responsible for the death of that youth are brought to justice, the better.

The large majority of racial attacks, however, involve bodily harm or grievous bodily harm. As has been the case with bullies throughout the ages, the more defenceless types are subject to that sickening violence. Very often, the victims are Asian women and children.

We should not conclude that the problem is confined to the capital. Last month The Scotsman reported that incidents of racial violence were increasing. The senior community relations officer in Strathclyde was quoted as saying that evidence coming in to the community relations council and black advice centres showed that such violence 851 was very much on the increase, and that in the west midlands and also in the Strathclyde area, unfortunately, fascist organisations were attempting to stir up the maximum amount of racial hatred.

There seems to be a contradiction in the law as it stands. Incitement to racial violence is a criminal offence and many of us fought and campaigned for that. It is right and proper that such provision should be on the statute book. However, the existence of organisations like the national front and the so-called British national party, whose headquarters is in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Woolwich (Mr. Austin-Walker), arises from an attempt to stir up the maximum amount of racial strife and hatred. There is undoubtedly a contradiction there.

I welcome the moves that have been taken in Germany. They may be rather late in the day, but they are intended to deal with fascist organisations. The day may come when we shall have to deal with such individuals as well. I do not suggest that we should simply ban such organisations because the people concerned could easily form another organisation the next day. We must be clear that there is a contradiction along the lines that I have just described.

Like the Commission for Racial Equality, I believe that amending the law as I now suggest would be a recognition by Parliament and thus by the courts that racial violence should be regarded as an aggravating feature in prosecution and when a person has been duly convicted. That would send two messages. First, there would be a message to people who are in the business of inflicting such racial violence. There would also be a different message to those in the community at large and in the ethnic communities.

Amending the law as I suggest would also show our total abhorrence of the kind of crime that I have described. It would hopefully stimulate a more realistic level of reporting of such offences and demonstrate to all the seriousness with which we view attacks on people because of their colour or race.

All forms of attack and criminality are to be deplored. We want to bring to justice everyone who carries out criminality. That goes without saying. I am drawing attention today to a particular type of criminality whereby people are attacked simply because they happen to have skin which is a different colour from that of the majority of people in this country or because of their racial origin or the religion that they pursue. That is unforgivable and the House cannot ignore it.

852 My Bill is not meant to be an overall solution. Nor is it intended to be a substitute for existing laws. If anything, I want to see the existing laws strengthened. My proposed Bill would be part of coming to grips with the problem. It would be one more step to remove the fear and agony which exists.

Fortunately, a large majority of people of the ethnic minorities live in our country without difficulties. They live law-abiding lives and, by and large, do not have the sort of difficulties that I have described. However, there are those is certain parts of the country who have suffered day in and day out the fear and agony of being attacked for the reasons which I have outlined. My proposed Bill would be one of a number of steps to end such criminality.

Some time ago, going back indeed about a quarter of a century, with other Labour Members I argued for changes in the law to do away with race discrimination. Those measures were introduced largely as a result of the Labour majority of the late 1960s. All that has happened has demonstrated how right we were to argue for such changes.

I believe that my Bill is another step to ensure that we can all live in this country without fear of persecution or terror of any sort, regardless of our colour, race or background.