The tabloid press publishes hate speech headlines that encourage prejudice.  That’s the conclusion from a Europe-wide human rights body. 

For decades papers like the Daily Mail have been printing toxic rants that target muslims, migrants, gay and trans people. Anyone who is ‘different’. And this summer, we saw the result of this drip-feed of hatred as levels of racist and xenophobic hate crime soared in the wake of the EU referendum.

But in order to keep printing hate the Daily Mail needs the millions in advertising it gets from companies like John Lewis. Companies that talk the talk of ethical and responsible trading, while remaining oblivious to the hate they fund. Together we can put that right.

The Daily Mail routinely describes people fleeing war as ‘vermin’ and ‘swarms’. In 2013 a trans schoolteacher, Lucy Meadows, killed herself after being outed by the paper. Earlier this month the Daily Mail attacked a judge for being ‘openly gay’. 

People in Britain today are living in fear of being attacked just because of the colour of their skin, or where they were born. And that fear is justified -- in August a Polish man, Arkadiusz Jozwik, was murdered in a hate crime. The media has played a huge part in whipping up the hatred and division that we are seeing taking root.

If we want to combat the terrifying increase in racism, we need to hold our media to account. And we can do that by telling companies who share our values to stop advertising in papers that print hate.

Our friends at Stop Funding Hate have already successfully pressured LEGO to pull its promotions with the Daily Mail. The Co-op has also committed to reviewing its advertising policy. And we know that the Daily Mail’s parent company is concerned that other companies will follow suit.

SumOfUs members have been standing up against divisive politics this summer. Over 51,000 of us demanded the Sun publish an apology for Kelvin Mackenzie’s islamophobic bile. And nearly 60,000 of us stood firm with ‘foreign workers’ when the government wanted to ‘name and shame companies’ for employing a global workforce.

John Lewis is already feeling the pressure, just as it’s gearing up to the festive shopping season. Let’s tell it we’ve had enough of hate and want it to help create a kinder, more loving world.