Croydon MP Calls Diane Abbott "Despicable" For Linking Attacks To Brexit

3 April 2017, 11:09 | Updated: 3 April 2017, 11:25

Chris Philp said he was disappointed that the shadow Home Secretary was trying to make party political points out of hate crimes.

Speaking to Nick Ferrari on the LBC breakfast show, Abbott said that we had to take seriously the possibility that a rise in hate crimes was a result of Brexit.

“The Metropolitan police linked it to Brexit and I think we have to take them seriously.

“It was after the Brexit vote, when feelings were running high, when we saw a spike in hate crimes.”

The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington cited a poster that Nigel Farage unveiled showing a ling line of refugees and the words ‘Breaking Point’

“I’m not saying everyone who campaigned for Brexit used that kind of rhetoric, but some of them did." She said

“There’s no question that it caused a spike in hate crimes.”

Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, made clear to Nick that he strongly disagreed with her stance.

“For her to try and make a party political point is pretty despicable to be honest."

Philp wanted to distance politics from the incident of Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker who was attacked in Croydon over the weekend.

“This is not about party politics.

"This is a sickening attack, which is thankfully extremely rare, and has been condemned across the political spectrum.”