It was no surprise to me that within hours of the UK’s historic EU referendum came reports of migrants being abused, told crudely to ‘go home’ and reports of offensive literature targeting migrants and their families being distributed freely in areas with a perceived higher concentration of migrants. In London the Polish Cultural Centre was vandalised with xenophobic graffiti and in the Huntingdon area of Cambridgeshire laminated cards targeting the Polish community were placed on vehicles near a school.

A matter of hours after the referendum Glasgow residents reported finding neo-nazi and white supremacy posters and stickers attached to lamp posts in the Glasgow Green area and on the La Pasionaria war memorial opposite Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Stickers found on Glasgow lamposts and war memorial The twitter account Post Referendum Racism was set up just after the in the wake of the referendum to collate, archive and share some of the worst examples of racism and bigotry witnessed within our communities. This twitter account makes for very grim reading and due to some of the language featured, it may not be suitable to view in work (you’ve been warned).

While commentators like Julia Hartley-Brewer and Louise Mensch continue to claim the EU referendum had nothing to do with soaring hate crime, the rest of us watch as the hatred, animosity and contempt rise and create further divisions in our communities. The referendum did not create racists and bigots overnight, rather it provided justification for unhappy people to seek someone to blame for their low wages, dilapidated housing and a sense of disconnection from the changing world around them.

Over the years, the ‘foreigner’ has been a convenient ‘whipping-boy’ for Governments of all colours and as migration increased and the European Union expanded, migrants have been held out as an intolerable nuisance by many British politicians and administrations. Forget the dwindling resources, budget cuts and idealistic and costly ventures into our private lives by successive Governments; migration is the reason you cannot see your doctor or enrol your child in the fancy school at the bottom of your tree-lined street. You can no longer park right outside the supermarket doors, you have to walk to find a seat on your commuter train in the morning and heaven forbid you live near a modern high street with its smattering of kebab shops, Polish supermarkets and Asian sweet shops.

The world is changing, modern Britain is a globalised society which benefits from the labour and culture of people from right across the world and our European cousins have full and unfettered access to this country in the same way we do theirs and so they should! The EU is not simply a trading bloc, it is a community and we all benefit massively from EU migrants working in our essential services and our service sector. During the referendum debates we heard the soundbyte that ‘you are more likely to be treated in the NHS by a migrant than you are to be laying next to one in a hospital ward’ and it’s true, 53,000 Europeans work in NHS England alone. 9% of all hospital doctors working in NHS England came from another European country and for nurses (and health visitors) the figure is 6%. The devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish NHS workforce data categorised by nationality.

We have been complicit in fostering this environment of finger-pointing by allowing politicians to blame pressure on essential services such as our schools, NHS and housing on those coming to the UK from neighbouring European countries. We have allowed Governments to cut budgets, close hospitals and schools, build less houses and give tax breaks to the richest in society while pointing fingers at those coming to the UK and contributing to the communities we live, work and study in.

Despite increasing migration being painted as a bad thing for the UK, EU migrants pay more into the UK than they take out in benefits and their contribution is valued at around £2 billion. Britain and its economy has reaped the benefits of being the “jobs factory of Europe” and while some are only too eager to view EU migrants as stealing UK jobs, record numbers of British people are in work. It is undeniable, genuine fears over the EU and migration exist but much of these come from the sharing of warped or massaged statistics, a perception of inherent unfairness around the free movement of labour and misinformation about how the European Union works. We should be educating people not manipulating them and exploiting their ignorance to push an agenda.

History shows us that Governments like a scapegoat and it seems in Britain some politicians are only too eager to perpetuate the myth that EU migrants are taking jobs meant for British people and are a drain on the UK. The EU referendum was an exercise in abject stupidity by a prime minister who can no more control quarreling factions in his own party than he can control the lies which fly out of his mouth on a daily basis. There is no suggestion from me that everyone voting to leave the EU did so with bigotry or xenophobia in their hearts, rather the minority who did will be emboldened by believing a majority of those voting with them, to leave the EU, endorse their views and motivations.

Migrants in the UK are political pawns in a never ending blame game and the sooner we realise this and challenge it, the better.