Dan Liddicott, Libertarian Party Home Policy Spokesman, agreed with Chief Constable Sara Thornton when she raised the thorny issue of hate crime and urged police to focus on burglaries and violence ahead of recording incidents that are not crimes.

Dan Liddicott, Libertarian Party Home Policy Spokesman, said: “Given all that is expected of the police Chief Constable Thornton was quite right in directing policing resources to focus on real crimes.

“Over recent years policing has become increasingly politicised leading to confusion about its purpose and priorities, making it a tool of divisive identity politics rather than of law and order.

“It is vital that police are allowed to focus on tackling real crime if they are to maintain the trust and confidence of those they serve, an essential aspect of Peelian policing principles.”

On the subject of hate crime Dan Liddicott said: “No one likes to have their feelings hurt, however, hate crime clearly favours the feelings of some people more than others when all ought to be equal before the law.

“Assuming a hate motive for distasteful or criminal behaviour is highly subjective, open to abuse, wastes police resources and makes no material difference to the outcome for the victim or the nature of an actual crime where one is committed.

“The law has no place determining what a person may think or believe. Thoughts, feelings and most of the time words, are not crimes even if we strongly disagree with them. Freedom of conscience and freedom of speech are civil liberties worth protecting even if some people are disagreeable.

“We already have laws to deal with criminal use of speech and other actions including assault, incitement to violence, threatening behaviour, harassment and many other tangible crimes. Victims of these crimes should always report them whatever the perceived motive. Police should be freed up to deal with those crimes swiftly and efficiently without politically motivated distractions.”