MEMBERS of the public "must not be afraid" to speak out against hatred and intolerance, a Dorset MP has said.

Simon Hoare, who represents North Dorset, said "common decency" must be reaffirmed after a spike in reports of hate crime after last year's Brexit vote.

As reported in the Daily Echo, hate crime in Dorset is at the highest level since recording of the offence began.

New figures show that between July and September 2016, 104 reports of hate crimes were received by Dorset Police.

The number represented a rise of 100 per cent when compared with April to June 2016.

A referendum to leave the EU took place on June 23 last year.

Dorset's results are the highest quarterly figure since comparable records began in April 2012. The county also saw the biggest increase in such reports in England and Wales.

Mr Hoare said: "104 reports in the general scheme of things is not high, but when the baseline was so low to start with, it represents an enormous and very alarming jump."

He said one constituent, who works in a public service role, has reported being spoken to on three occasions by people who "aren't necessarily being aggressive, but have said, 'Oh, you're still here.'"

"We did see a particular spike in the seven or so weeks following the referendum, but I think the trajectory is going in a downwards direction," he said.

"I think, in the minds of some people, one of the results of Brexit is that people will leave, or will be made to leave, and that nobody from anywhere else will ever come into the UK ever again. This is obviously a nonsense - it would be entirely undesirable in any case."

Mr Hoare said the "distorted" debate has led to "over-simplification and magnification" of certain issues, such as immigration.

"It's deeply depressing," he said.

"What we have to do as a society is to call out the sort of casual abuse that might be, for example, shouted in the street.

"We must not be afraid to say to somebody, 'Oi, that's unacceptable and rude, stop it'.

"We have to reassert and reaffirm what many of us will know as common decency."