Rural England is 'too white and needs more halal food', says 'Centre for Hate Studies'

Rural Britain's "overwhelming" whiteness causes "discomfort" and a "psychological burden" to people from different minority groups trying to navigate "white spaces", the report claims.

The academics also claimed that pub culture and other “monocultural customs” in rural areas are not inclusive.

In a section titled "How Can We Make the Countryside More Inclusive?", the report went on to critique rural areas for not doing enough to cater for “dietary norms that are rooted in religious or cultural practice”.

It set out a number of recommendations which it claims will make those from different cultural groups feel more at ease when visiting rural Britain.

The report reads: "One of the most frequently mentioned barriers was the lack of appropriate facilities to meet religious and cultural needs.

"Several Muslim participants noted that simple changes, such as the availability of halal food or spaces for prayer, could make a significant difference in whether people feel comfortable visiting the countryside."

It also called on business owners to improve "cultural sensitivity" in their rural establishments.

The review said: "Welcoming minoritised individuals into the countryside means more than tolerance; it requires thoughtful adaptation, sustained inclusion efforts and a willingness to change.”

Professor Neil Chakraborti, the University of Leicester's Hate Studies lead, worked alongside the centre's deputy director Amy Clarke and Corinne Fowler, a professor of colonialism and heritage on the two-year project from which the report made its conclusions.

"The Rural Racism Project: Towards an Inclusive Countryside" was created by the first Viscount Leverhulme, William Lever and was funded by the Leverhulme Trust charity.

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The report, which starts with a trigger warning, was based on a series of interviews and "informal conversations" with 115 participants.

It noted that the countryside communities could by revived "by bringing in more diverse communities” as part of a "broader rural regeneration strategy”.

The Rural Racism Project claimed its participants had been treated poorly in rural areas through prejudicial "microaggressions".

The report defined these as “persistent and aggressive staring, hostile body language and deliberate isolation".

It also noted that the British "monoculture" found away from our multicultural cities could help to fuel "far-right sentiment".

Gavin Rice, of the Onward think tank, laid into the report.

"Can you imagine if a bunch of academics published a report saying parts of the UK are too black, too Asian or too Chinese?" he spat.

"This report literally says the existence of areas where most people are white is racist. Over 90 per cent of the UK is white if you remove the major cities."

The Countryside Alliance, meanwhile, accused its authors of “collating anecdotes”.

Tim Bonner, the group's chief executive, told The Telegraph: “We would never downplay any individual act of racism, which must be confronted wherever it arises, but the narrative that rural communities are inherently more racist than urban ones is just nonsense.

“Recent government hate crime statistics show an inverse relationship between rurality and racist hate crimes.”