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Polish ambassador says his staff have dealt with ‘15 or 16’ hate crimes since Brexit vote

Arkady Rzegocki described the killing of Arkadiusz Jozwik as ‘a very important tragedy’

Wednesday 31 August 2016 20:47 BST

Polish Ambassador Arkady Rzegocki alongside Harlow MP Robert Halfon (right) in Harlow (PA)

Poland's Ambassador to the UK has visited the town where a Polish man was attacked and killed in a possible hate crime by six teenagers who, according to the local MP, “literally come from the sewers”.

The Ambassador Arkady Rzegocki described the killing as "a very important tragedy", and said his staff had deal with "15 or 16 such situtations" since the June referendum.

Arkadiusz Jozwik, who was 40 years old, was attacked on Saturday night and died on Monday from head injuries.

“It is a very important tragedy and we have to work together on this issue," Mr Rzegocki said, before confirming he would attend planned “march of silence” in the town on Saturday.

Speaking alongside Rzegocki, Halfon delivered a strongly worded statement.

Halfon said: “I’m very proud of our Polish community in Harlow. The Polish people work incredibly hard and have opened up some lovely shops and helped regenerate parts of our town and employed more people.

“What has happened is an incredible tragedy. We need to find out the truth… This is not just a tragedy for the family or for Poland, it is a tragedy for Harlow and Britain as well.”

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

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1/66 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

More expensive foreign holidays

The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

No immediate change in immigration status

The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Higher inflation

A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation – a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods – food and clothes being the most obvious – but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Interest rates might rise

The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Did somebody say recession?

Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economy’s future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

And we wouldn’t even get our money back

All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years’ time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget

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The 40-year-old and another Polish man were set upon outside a row of takeaway shops in what Essex Police believe was an unprovoked attack at around 11.35pm.

With regard to the Brexit vote fuelling hate crime, Mr Halfon said: "I believe that the vast majority of people who voted to leave the EU did for noble reasons.

"I do have a view that a very small minority - and I stress that these kinds of awful things are done by a minority - it (the referendum) is being used by people who come from the sewers who want to exploit division and have their own racist agenda. They literally come from the sewers."

Mr Jóźwik’s brother said he was killed after he was heard speaking Polish outside a pizza shop in the town in Essex.

In a written statement, the MP said: “We must do more than be horrified. We must actively stand up against racism of any kind.

“We must welcome Polish and other communities just as we would welcome our best friends and we must all work together to ensure that Harlow remains a kind, decent and tolerant place to live.”

“We should be celebrating the hard work and positive contribution of the migrant communities that greatly benefit our society.”

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