People who commit hate crimes will face tougher sentences under Labour plans.
Ed Miliband today published his party’s manifesto for black and ethnic minority communities, including a pledge on new guidance from the Sentencing Council to ensure appropriate penalties for aggravated hate crimes.
Police and prosecutors’ guidance would be reviewed to ensure anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other hate crimes on social media are dealt with adequately.
“The recent rise in hate crimes... underscores how far we as a society have yet to travel in stamping out racism for good,” said Mr Miliband in a joint foreword with shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan and shadow equalities minister Gloria De Piero.
Labour pledges to reform stop and search by making clear in law that stopping someone on the basis of skin colour is illegal and discriminatory.
It proposes to replace the “discredited and weak” Independent Police Complaints Commission with a Police Standards Authority and pledged to ensure diversity in the Civil Service, judiciary and police.
