Dear Petitioners, As a follow up to the news that the police have now escalated our complaint to the CPS I have sent the following open letter to the PM. For any enquiries or comments please email ziddacism@gmail.com: Rt Hon Theresa May MP 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA 11/09/2016 Open Letter to the Prime Minister Dear Theresa May, I am writing to you on behalf of the 42,707 petitioners whom have signed my petition at change.org. The petition requested that the CPS investigate Nigel Farage and the Leave.EU referendum campaign for inciting racial and religious hatred. We were informed by the CPS that the complaint would need to be submitted to the police before they could consider it. The complaint was reported to Kentish Town police station at 12.30pm on 20th July 2016. The text of the original complaint can be found at the end of this letter. The original complaint was rejected by the Metropolitan Police (MET). Following this rejection I decided to carry out some basic additional research. Additional information, including inflammatory posters, videos and data linking Nigel Farage and the Leave.EU campaign to actual hate crimes was presented. This week, after nearly two months, the Metropolitan Police Chiefs have agreed to refer the complaint to the CPS for a decision on whether to investigate. A recent United Nations1 report strongly criticising the UK, and has concluding that the "Divisive", "anti-immigrant" and “xenophobic rhetoric” by UK politicians during the EU referendum had helped to fuel a spike in race hate crimes in the weeks before and after the vote. In addition David Isaac, chairman of the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission also commented that “there are concerns that the acrimonious and divisive manner in which the referendum debate was conducted exacerbated worrying divisions in British society, and has been used by a minority to legitimise race hate”. When our complaint was originally submitted to the police a UKIP spokesperson dismissed the petitioners as ‘clicktivists’. I am sure you will agree that the UN and UK Equality and Human Rights Commission cannot be similarly derided as organisations lacking legitimacy. In the 2013 All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Electoral Conduct and Racism2, the CPS commented that “there is sufficient legal provision to address incidents of racism and discrimination in UK elections”. The inquiry agreed with evidence submitted by the Conservative party that “the laws of this country give a specific instruction on electoral conduct”. If this is the case then there should be no hesitation on the part of the government in requesting that the CPS carry out a full and thorough investigation in order to determine the extent of wrongdoing. To these ends I would like to set out the petitioners’ expectations for the CPS investigation. We feel that the investigation should include, but not be limited to, the following actions: • The petitioners are spread throughout the UK. We would therefore expect National Police Chiefs and their organisations to be consulted in order to determine what has caused the shift in views in legitimacy of racial and religious intolerance surrounding the referendum. Testimony and comments by hate crime offenders needs to be reviewed to establish if campaigning had an influence. • The CPS need to establish where, when and why Leave.EU decided to campaign using material that demonise specific minority groups. Enquiries should be made not only of the Leave.EU leadership, but also former employees and ex-supporters, as well as key politicians and UKIP members who refused to support the campaign, such as Douglas Carswell. • Under the Public Order Act 1986, it clearly states that “It is an offence to publish or distribute threatening, abusive or insulting material that is intended to stir up racial hatred or which is likely to stir up racial hatred.” Evidence gathering should establish what Leave.EU materials were published and what was said about minority groups in various forms of media. It should also investigate other materials funded or supported by Leave.EU or its leadership but not branded as such. Further, evidence should be gathered of any other materials shared or distributed online by the campaign (eg. the 'Vicious Snake' video). • Leave.EU was a ‘grassroots’ campaign. Enquiries need to be made into the rhetoric used by Leave.EU politicians and leaders in public, including at hustings meetings. • Evidence needs to consider potential comments by Leave.EU leaders suggesting violence would ensue if concerns about minority groups were not addressed by Voting to Leave the EU. Was this intended to or likely to be interpreted as a signal to action? • Investigation should consider potential evidence of Leave.EU campaign or rhetoric being used as endorsement by far right groups, and potential consequential influence on those responsible for hate crime. If just a few hours’ research can uncover significant information on links between hate crime and the campaign, then I can only imagine what proper police investigation will reveal. Just from information available publicly we found evidence of potential influence in one quarter of hate crimes looked at. If mainstream politicians are allowed to get away with deliberately stoking up fear and hatred of minority groups to generate votes we are in danger. Unless a strong signal is sent now we will only see more of this type of campaigning in the next election. This must never be allowed to happen again. Demonising Muslims and Eastern Europeans simply isn’t legitimate politics. We respectfully call upon our Prime Minister to demand the CPS to launch a full investigation. Yours sincerely, Zack Newman & 42,718 petitioners References: 1) UN CERD Report on EU Referendum Concerns: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/GBR/CERD_C_GBR_CO_21-23_24985_E.pdf 2) 2013 All Party Parliamentary Enquiry Into Electoral Conduct http://antisemitism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/3767_APPG_Electoral_-Parliamentary_Report_emailable.pdf THE LAW, PROSECUTION, POLICING AND JUDICIAL ENFORCEMENT para 41: 41. We concur then with evidence from the Conservative Party that “the laws of this country give a specific instruction on electoral conduct”43 and with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and a number of the Local Authorities that submitted evidence that there is sufficient legal provision to address incidents of racism and discrimination in UK elections. That is not to say the law is not, as it was put to us “underused or misunderstood 3) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/04/nigel-farage-migrants-could-pose-sex-attack-threat-to-britain/