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A report by the Runnymede Trust has confirmed something many of us have suspected for years: that racist and hostile language in the UK – in both Parliament and the press – has not only continued but intensified.

Worse still, it’s being allowed to spread unchecked.

Their latest research, A Hostile Environment: Language, Race, Surveillance and the Media, analysed more than 63 million words from nearly 53,000 news articles and 317 parliamentary debates on immigration between 2019 and July 2024. The findings are stark:

• The word “illegal” is now even more strongly associated with the term “immigrant” than it was a decade ago.

• Immigrants in media and politics are overwhelmingly represented as non-white, and often dehumanised.

• The top ten words linked to migration in Parliament include “illegal,” “tackle,” “mass,” and “reduce”.

• Politicians are much more likely to use humanising language only when talking about white European migrants – especially Ukrainians.

The report links this language directly to the rise in reactionary politics, far-right mobilisation, and racially motivated violence.

It even notes that political slogans like “Stop the Boats” have been adopted by rioters in summer 2024 protests, showing that government rhetoric is not just being repeated — it’s being weaponised.

This is a system-wide failure: of political leadership, of editorial responsibility, and most critically, of the laws that are supposed to protect people from incitement and racial hatred.

So where are those laws?

The Online Safety Act (OSA), we’re told, exists to protect people – particularly children – from online harms.

But right now, it’s being enforced in ways that limit access to sexual content or increase age restrictions, while doing little to stop the spread of racist narratives and coordinated hate campaigns.

Elon Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter) is now accusing Ofcom of infringing free speech, while the UK government insists the Act protects expression.

But if neither side can stop hate speech from spreading online – and fuelling real-world violence – what’s the point?

The Public Order Act 1986, meanwhile, criminalises incitement to racial hatred – in theory.

But in practice, it is almost never used against coded, persistent, or institutional forms of racism, particularly when they come from MPs or legacy media outlets.

And thanks to Parliamentary privilege, our elected representatives can say almost anything in the House of Commons without legal consequences — even if it fans the flames of racial tension.

This isn’t abstract for me. It’s personal.

A close friend of mine recently spent time in hospital after what appears to be a racist hate attack in Doncaster.

He’s Black. His parents came here from Zimbabwe and have been UK citizens for decades. He works for a charity and was in the town for work.

He was walking down the street. He heard a sound behind him. The next thing he remembers is waking up in hospital with two bleeds on the brain and a concussion. There was no robbery. No argument. Just violence. Sudden and unprovoked.

It was sickening. Then I started looking at the wider picture — and saw what this attack really is:

Not an isolated incident. Not random. Not unexpected.

It’s part of a growing pattern of politically stoked, media-amplified hate.

Let’s not forget what’s happened in other towns across the UK this year alone:

• In Southport, a stabbing was falsely claimed to have been caused by a Muslim asylum seeker. Online hate networks amplified the lie, and within hours, riots broke out. Mosques were attacked. Migrants were beaten in the street.

• In Epping, the mere presence of asylum seekers in a local hotel sparked weeks of protests, fuelled by conspiracy theories and anti-immigrant rhetoric. The result? More people hospitalised.

And now Doncaster.

A man attacked for being Black. For being an immigrant’s child. For simply existing.

It fits the pattern. And the pattern is the point.

We are not dealing with isolated acts of violence. We are witnessing the deliberate radicalisation of public discourse — from Parliament to newspaper headlines to Twitter threads — and it’s spilling over into blood on our streets.

The laws aren’t stopping this — because they weren’t built to.

So here’s what’s happening:

• The Online Safety Act isn’t currently fit for purpose. It must be reformed to deal with the actual online harms fuelling this crisis: coordinated hate networks, algorithmic amplification of racist messaging, and misinformation campaigns that trigger violence.

• The Public Order Act must be updated to cover cumulative, coded racial incitement – not just the most explicit slurs. It needs teeth when it comes to the mainstream press and high-profile influencers.

• Parliamentary privilege must be reviewed. There is no excuse for MPs to be able to dehumanise migrants in speeches without any accountability. We need a mechanism to scrutinise and sanction racially hostile rhetoric in the House of Commons.

• And finally, media regulation needs an overhaul. The Runnymede Trust’s research shows a sustained pattern of racialised framing in the UK press. This isn’t just about who gets called “illegal” — it’s about who gets treated as a human being, and who doesn’t.

The stakes are high – and rising

The UK is not spontaneously combusting.

It is being lit, spark by spark, by people with a vested interest in division. And the legal system, as it stands, is not stopping them.

If we allow these attacks — in Doncaster, Southport, Epping, or anywhere else — to be dismissed as unfortunate but isolated events, we will miss the truth:

This is a strategy. And it is working.

It’s time to confront that reality head-on. Not with platitudes. Not with promises. But with real reform.

We need to do it before the next town burns.

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