The nationalities of migrants with the highest rates of crime will be revealed in official league tables for the first time under plans due to be announced by the Government today. The Telegraph has more.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has ordered officials to publish the first detailed breakdown of offences committed by foreign criminals living in the UK while awaiting deportation.
Albanians, Romanians and Poles are expected to be among the worst offenders for crimes including violence, robbery, theft and drug dealing.
It is understood Ms Cooper overruled Home Office officials, who previously claimed it was too difficult to provide quality data on foreign criminals, telling them she wanted the figures to be published by the end of the year.
The only previous such breakdowns have been unofficial, published by the Telegraph and campaign groups who obtained the data through freedom of information requests to police forces.
The move, ahead of next month’s local elections, will be seen as an attempt to take on Tory Right-wingers who have called for the data on foreign criminals to be published and to neutralise efforts by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK to capitalise on immigration fears in Labour’s traditional heartlands.
A Labour source said: “Not only are we deporting foreign criminals at a rate never seen when Chris Philp and Robert Jenrick were in charge at the Home Office, but we will also be publishing far more information about that cohort of offenders than the Tories ever did.”
Mr Jenrick, who first called for the data to be published, welcomed the move, saying: “Following over a year of pressure from campaigners, including my own attempt to change the law, it appears that there’s been a breakthrough. The British public deserve the truth about migrant crime and the costs of low-skilled immigration,” he said.
The move mirrors an approach by some US states and Denmark, where crime rates for migrants are published. In Denmark, in many instances, the rates are higher than for Danish nationals.
Ministers believe the data could provide ammunition in diplomatic negotiations to help secure deportation deals similar to the agreements with Albania for fast-track removals and prisoner transfers.
Sources said it could also help law enforcement agencies target foreign offenders, as has been seen with police operations against organised foreign crime gangs running illegal cannabis farms.
Worth reading in full.
In the Spectator, James Heale says the data “will lead to the kind of difficult conversations which many Government MPs have deliberately sought to avoid”:
Ministry of Justice data suggest that Afghans and Eritreans were more than 20 times more likely to account for sexual offence convictions than British citizens. Such statistics prompt a conundrum for pro-migration Labour MPs, concerned about women’s safety. Cooper’s league table is designed to nullify attacks by Reform and the Tories. But will her Government have the courage to provide answers to the thorny questions which it provokes?
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