I do want to make what I think is an important point here, that, of course, hate crime, in whatever form it exists is to be deplored and not to be tolerated and, indeed, to be punished, and punished severely. But, we must keep this in perspective. Britain, and Wales in particular, are tolerant countries. We are not bigots. The number of hate crimes recorded is actually very, very small. The figures to which the Cabinet Secretary referred in the 2014-15 report show a total of 2,259. That’s 2,259 too many, but even if there is underreporting, as we all assume that there is, it’s still not a vast number for a year. Dawn Bowden made the point that the increases may partly be a result of greater awareness of the means of reporting and of the need to report. So, I don’t think that this is an epidemic, by any means.

We have seen, in the last couple of years, the disappearance of the British National Party, the English Defence League has shrivelled to a fraction of its former importance, and my party, for years, has had a policy of proscribing political parties and not allowing refugees from them into our ranks. So, if anybody is trying to libel us by saying that we take in racists, they are very much to be deplored themselves. Indeed, Joyce Watson accused me the other day in this Chamber of standing on a platform of hatred. That in itself is a form of hate crime, I suppose, and intolerance. So, I think that Members on all sides of the house should treat each other with respect, as Bethan Jenkins said in her opening remarks. What I want this Chamber to accept is that hate crime, yes, of course, is to be deplored, but it is not an epidemic and it doesn’t look as though it’s going to become so.

The figures that are recorded in the report to which the Cabinet Secretary referred come from the True Vision website. Not all of the reports are investigated by the police, because you can make reports anonymously and, therefore, it would be impossible to take them further. So, that reinforces the point that I started making at the beginning of my speech. It is also self-selecting, and I quote—because this is what justifies a hate crime in terms of the figures that are recorded:

‘Evidence of the hostility is not required for an incident or crime to be recorded as a hate crime or hate incident…. the perception of the victim, or any other person…is the defining factor….The victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief, and police officers or staff should not directly challenge this perception.’

So, the figures that we have have to be seen in the light of those self-selecting rules. I mean, 1 per cent of the figures cover bicycle thefts, for example. I don’t know what a racially motivated bicycle theft is, but that, I think, should inspire us to treat with caution treating the figures as if they are holy writ.

It is indeed a slur upon the millions and millions of people who voted for Brexit because of their fears about the social effects of too rapid mass immigration to call their motivations racist. Actually, the Labour Party, in making that claim, are actually attacking their own supporters and former supporters, because the biggest Brexit votes in Wales, of course, as we know, took place in places like Torfaen, Merthyr, Ebbw Vale, and so on, and so forth. So, I think it is a mistake for us to allow the debate on hate crime to wander off into the byways of politics because, yes, hate crime is something to be deplored and, so far as we can do it, to be eradicated, but we will not do that by casting slurs upon people who do not hate and are not racists. Therefore, we need to keep this in perspective.

Yes, we support the motion and we support the aims of the Government, and the measured way in which the Cabinet Secretary introduced this debate today is to be applauded. For my part and my party’s part, we will support the initiatives that the Government has set in train. But, please, don’t cast the slur of racism and intolerance upon us.