A SPEECH given by Tory Home Secretary Amber Rudd has been logged as a “hate incident,” police confirmed yesterday.

Ms Rudd used her conference address to “set out a number of possible measures to reduce immigration, including new restrictions on recruiting overseas workers and students,” in Birmingham in October.

The speech, which called for employers to draw up a list of foreign workers, led to a furious backlash and accusations that her comments were overtly racist.

Ms Rudd also implied that ministers would “consider” whether new tests should be imposed to ensure those coming to Britain are “filling gaps in the labour market, not taking jobs British people could do.”

The British jobs for British workers canard infamously espoused by Gordon Brown has led to calls for her dismissal and an end to the xenophobic rhetoric so frequently regurgitated by those in power.

Oxford university physics professor Joshua Silver was so concerned he reported the speech to the police.

He told the BBC: “Some politicians have been using hate crime as an instrument to foster support for their political aims.”

West Midlands Police said the complaint had to be recorded as a “non-crime hate incident” in accordance with guidelines. There was no evidence of a hate crime being committed, the force added.

National guidance for police states: “Where any person, including police personnel, reports a hate incident which would not be the primary responsibility of another agency, it must be recorded regardless of whether or not they are the victim, and irrespective of whether there is any evidence to identify the hate element.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “This was not a hate crime. The Home Secretary has been crystal clear that hatred has absolutely no place in a Britain that works for everyone.

“She’s made countering hate one of her key priorities, indeed one of the first public interventions she made was to launch the Hate Crime Action Plan.”

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