Police recorded non-crime hate incident over gender row handshake refusal

More detailed information about the incident was not disclosed, although the force has insisted that the incident had been recorded “correctly” and “in line with College of Police guidance”.

The report comes as police forces come under fire for wasting time recording hate incidents, particularly after Essex Police dropped its probe into Allison Pearson's social media posts.

Recent NCHI reports have included a “rough” haircut from a barber, as a client insisted his hairdresser was “aggressive” after they spoke about Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine - because he was Lithuanian and could speak Russian.

A City of London Police record of the incident said: “Barber asked him about the present situation in Ukraine, victim stated that all conversations with the barber were fine, but he stated that the barber was aggressive and rough whilst he was cutting his hair.

“The victim believes this was because he spoke Russian and is a hate incident.”

Other recorded NCHIs have included a German woman being offended at being compared to a Rottweiler and a neighbour feeling that it was homophobic to be called “Leonard” amidst a hedge dispute.

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Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp hit out at police forces, saying their actions had undermined overall “confidence in policing”.

“The police should not waste any valuable time on incidents like this,” he said. “There is plenty of real crime they should be preventing and solving.

“An aggressively-administered haircut is not a police matter.

“The police should only spend time investigating or recording actual criminal allegations or incidents where there is a real and imminent risk of criminality subsequently occurring.

“The Government needs to urgently update the guidance to ensure this is the case. This nonsense undermines confidence in policing.”

Between the start of the year and June, around 13,000 NCHIs had been recorded.

Responding to the NCHI about the “aggressive” haircut, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “The report was made online and later withdrawn.”

Peter Bleksley, a former Metropolitan Police detective, added: “This is ridiculous and shows how disconnected police are from what the public want.

“No wonder there is a crime wave in this country. The guidelines suggest you should only intervene in cases like this where there is fear of escalation – who ever had a fear of escalation after a bad haircut?”