Toxic rhetoric blamed as charities face violence

Charities have warned of growing racial abuse, intimidation, and threats of violence towards staff and beneficiaries amid increasingly toxic rhetoric around immigration and race by politicians and extremist activists.

- Patrick Butler Social policy editor

Voluntary organisations say they are being forced to introduce extensive security measures to protect staff and property - a trend described by one charity head as in danger of becoming the "new normal".

Refugee and asylum seeker charities, Muslim, Jewish and ethnic minority organisations, women's groups, youth bodies, homelessness charities and even charity shops have reported being subject to violence, threats and abuse.

Incidents include threats to rape and kill staff, verbal and physical abuse of beneficiaries on the street, attempted break-ins to charity-owned accommodation, and damage to offices and vandalism, including anti-migrant and racist graffiti.

Charities were being "targeted because of what they stand for and who they support," said Saskia Konynenburg, executive director at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Threats have become more explicit and targeted since the 2024 far-right Southport riots and the spread of inflammatory political and social media rhetoric around immigrants and "small boats," say charities.

Abuse has become more extreme and uninhibited in the way it is expressed or enacted, online and offline.

A coalition of more than 150 charities including Age UK, Citizen's Advice and the Muslim Council of Britain has written to Keir Starmer urging him to challenge the "cynical" targeting of civil society organisations by far-right politicians and activists seeking to stoke division for political gain in local communities.