Tory leadership contender says public ‘deserves to know the truth’
The amount of crime committed by migrants in Britain is being covered up, Robert Jenrick has said.
Mr Jenrick, a former immigration minister and Tory leadership contender, said the public “deserved to know the truth” as he pledged that if he became prime minister he would publish data identifying the migrant nationalities with the highest crime rates.
His proposal follows thwarted attempts by MPs and migration campaigners to obtain the information through parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests.
The Home Office, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Office for National Statistics (ONS) say they do not publish such data, although they could by linking information from Government and police databases.
Mr Jenrick told The Telegraph: “Under lax immigration controls we are importing serious and violent crime. The data from Denmark shows certain nationalities are more likely to commit crimes.
“We urgently need this data so we can carry out stronger checks at our border. The institutional cover-up of this data is a scandal. The public deserves to know the truth.”
The former Home Office and communities minister has proposed legislation that would require the Government each year to present a report to Parliament detailing the nationality, visa, and asylum status of every offender convicted in English and Welsh courts in the previous 12 months.
It would mirror an approach by some US states and Denmark, where league tables compiled from government data show the crime rates of the top four nations – Kuwait, Tunisia, Lebanon and Somalia – are eight times those of Danish nationals.
It follows an investigation by The Telegraph at the weekend which revealed how hundreds of Albanians who crossed the Channel on small boats have helped their drug gangs secure a stranglehold on the domestic cannabis market. More than 700 have set up a secret channel on Telegram to discuss tactics and methods.
Mr Jenrick believes the publication of data on migrants’ offences would enable the Home Office to toughen up visa and deportation policies for nationalities linked to higher rates of crime in the UK.
Tom Tugendhat, the shadow security minister and Tory leadership contender, is understood to be supportive of the plan to enable ministers to make decisions about immigration rules, movement deals and working with other governments to deport criminals.
A source said: “The Home Office should be providing clear and transparent data to do this.”
‘Disproportionate cost’ to extract nationality data
Neil O’Brien, a former minister, has sought to extract nationality data from the Home Office, MoJ and ONS but has been told his requests could only be answered at “disproportionate cost”.
He said the Home Office collected significant amounts of data on arrests by ethnicity but not by nationality. Nor would it answer questions on the immigration status of foreign nationals held in prison.
The MoJ publishes the nationality of foreign prisoners – of which there are 10,000 in UK jails – but will not provide further analysis, such as the number who are prolific offenders, because it would require them to link up their data with that of the Home Office. “It could only be provided at disproportionate cost,” said the MoJ.
Mr O’Brien said even the most basic data was missing as the ONS had told him it had discontinued giving a breakdown of the UK population by nationality.
He said: “Number 10 and the Home Office should grip this and start a cross-Whitehall push to improve migration data and start joining it up.”
Mr O’Brien said that he and Mr Jenrick, when ministers, had initiated a joint project to obtain more accurate estimates of migrants’ use of the NHS, which led to an increase in the health surcharge imposed on migrants.
He said: “We just can’t have a sensible conversation about migration if we keep deleting the data.”
James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch, the other two Tory leadership hopefuls, have been contacted for their views.
