Keir Starmer urged not to ‘cover it up’ as bombshell new migrant crime figures released
Robert Jenrick, a senior Conservative politician, is urging Labour leader Keir Starmer to come clean and release full details about migrant crime in the UK. Jenrick says the public deserves to know the truth about who is committing crimes, warning that failure to publish this data could turn into another government cover-up.
He pointed to troubling statistics, saying that some migrant groups are significantly more likely to be convicted of serious crimes than British citizens. For example, according to data, people from Albania are 153 times more likely to be convicted of drug-related crimes, while those from Afghanistan and Eritrea are around 20 times more likely to be convicted of sexual offences. He also mentioned that Congolese nationals have almost 12 times the conviction rate for violent crimes compared to British citizens.
Jenrick believes these numbers are deeply concerning and insists the government should publish updated migrant crime data every three months. He has proposed a law that would make it compulsory to release details about the nationality, immigration status, visa type, and method of entry for convicted criminals. He argues that this level of transparency is essential for public safety and to help the government make better decisions about immigration.
Between 2021 and 2023, data from the Centre for Migration Control revealed there were 104,000 convictions of foreign nationals in the UK. It also showed that 87 different nationalities had a higher conviction rate for sexual crimes than the British population. In 2024 alone, over 557,000 long-term visas were granted to people from these nationalities.
The figures also show that, among the known nationalities, foreign nationals were convicted in 2,500 out of nearly 17,000 sexual offence cases. Afghans had the highest rate at 59 convictions per 10,000 of their UK population, followed by Eritreans with nearly 54 convictions per 10,000.
Jenrick said the little information that has been made public already had to be forced out of the authorities, who were reluctant to share it. He’s calling on Starmer to either act responsibly by publishing the full migrant crime statistics—just as countries like Denmark already do—or face criticism for covering up facts that matter to the safety of the public.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said that officials have been ordered to release detailed crime and nationality data by the end of the year. However, the Home Office claims the number of foreign offenders waiting to be deported is rising due to several issues. These include early releases from overcrowded prisons, unstable political conditions in their home countries, and many legal appeals based on human rights protections that delay or prevent deportations.
To address this, the government plans to introduce new rules later this year. These rules will make it clearer how Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (which protects the right to family and private life) applies to migrants. The goal is to prevent people from using legal loopholes to avoid being deported after coming to the UK on short-term visas. The government also wants to make it clear that protecting public safety and controlling immigration is in the national interest.
