RUSH HOUR commuters have spread a message of love with stickers showing “Brighton is no place for hate.”

Sussex Police have reported a rise in hate crime since the EU Referendum victory for Leave campaigners.

But yesterday at daybreak a group of 40 volunteers led by minister Dave Steell gathered at Brighton station to hand out stickers and flyers with the goodwill message, and to inform people how to inform police and city authorities of any hate crimes.

Mr Steell, [CORR] 44, told The Argus that he came up with the idea on Tuesday, in an effort to combat any perception that Brighton’s usually accepting civic spirit had been dimmed in recent days,

He said: “I had conversation after conversation about Brexit and people feeling frustrated and upset, both people who voted in and leave, and I was trying to think of something to do a bit more positive to recognise that people from other countries were feeling a little unwelcome.”

The One Church Brighton clergyman created a facebook group which quickly found support online.

He said: “At six o’clock in the morning I was a little worried that it would just be me, but by half seven everyone was there, we had over 40 people handing out leaflets and stickers.

“People are in a hurry and people see us nutters handing out stickers, they looked very unenthusiastic but once they knew what it was for they all said ‘yes I’ll take one of those’

“It’s obviously an issue people care about. Everyone stuck it on very proudly and several people asked us whether they could take a bundle of the flyers for their office.”

In addition to the No Place For Hate banner, the group’s flyers explained how to report a hate crime to police and to the Brighton and Hove City Council safeguarding team’s website.

Mr Steell explained: “I wouldn’t have known where to report a hate crime so it’s important that we spread the word. The authorities need to know the scale of the problem.”

One Church Brighton is described by Mr Steell as a "loosely Baptist Church".

The happy group attended the station again at 5pm to spread their message among Friday evening’s weary commuters.

The morning’s stickers went down very well online, with the hashtag #noplaceforhate trending on Twitter and many commuters sharing their positivity.

Beatrice Orchard called it a “perfect message to start the day” and Antonio Delellis shared a photograph of the sticker on his lapel with the message “To see every other person sporting one of these this morning puts a smile on my face.”

Twitter user @?RhiannonScott23 said: “Lovely folk giving these out today at Brighton station and my morning grumpiness vanished. #noplaceforhate”