Tory MPs call for migrant crime ‘league tables’ based on nationality

Sign up for the View from Westminster electronic mail for knowledgeable evaluation straight to your inbox

Get our free View from Westminster electronic mail

Migrant nationalities with the very best charges of crime could possibly be ranked underneath authorities plans to toughen up visa and deportation insurance policies.

Robert Jenrick, the previous immigration minister, has put ahead an modification to the Criminal Justice  Bill that may see the nationality, visa and asylum standing of each offender convicted in English and Welsh courts revealed on an annual foundation in crime “league tables”.

A small group of round 12 Tory MPs help the modification, particulars of which have been first reported in The Daily Telegraph.

It comes days after figures confirmed the variety of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK thus far in 2024 had reached a document excessive for the primary three months of a calendar 12 months.

A authorities supply mentioned ministers “will certainly look properly at this amendment and engage with colleagues in the usual way”, though the newspaper reported there have been considerations over the practicality of implementing the proposal.

Mr Jenrick informed BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there was “significant and growing” proof the UK was importing crime – and that the nationality of migrants was already being taken under consideration on visa purposes.

He added: “What I’m proposing is that this data on crime plays a part in that. We would want to apply a higher level of scrutiny to nationalities that are higher risk.”

Latest Home Office figures present there have been 10,300 overseas nationals in jail in England and Wales, which is round 12 per cent of the entire jail inhabitants.

The Refugee Council has mentioned asylum guidelines within the UK space already “very stringent”. The group, talking to the BBC, mentioned severe criminals weren’t allowed to remain within the nation.

But talking to GB News, Mr Jenrick mentioned: “I think that the public want to know who’s coming into our country and what the economic, the fiscal and the societal impact of immigration is.

“There are people coming to this country who do us harm. There are people coming from countries who don’t share our Western liberal values and attitudes towards women and minorities, and we need to be open and honest about that.”

He additionally claimed that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “didn’t want to talk about” curbing authorized migration when he and former residence secretary Suella Braverman repeatedly tried to lift the difficulty – a declare contested by Downing Street sources.

Mr Sunak has been underneath stress from MPs on the precise of his occasion to take motion since revised official estimates revealed in November indicated the online migration determine – the distinction between the variety of folks arriving and leaving Britain – reached a document 745,000 in 2022.

The authorities is already introducing a raft of restrictions in a bid to chop the variety of folks legally arriving in Britain, together with a ban on abroad care employees bringing household dependants to the UK and a hiked wage threshold for expert employees to £38,700.

Home Secretary James Cleverly has requested the Migration Advisory Committee to assessment the graduate route for worldwide college students, whereas the minimal revenue requirement for household visas is being raised to £29,000 from April 11, and to £38,700 by early 2025.

Mr Sunak has beforehand vowed to “do what is necessary” to convey internet migration down.