Robert Jenrick: Starmer was all for transparency in Government – but only when it suits it seems

Robert Jenrick is the shadow Justice Secretary and MP for Newark.

As is so often the case, the British public recognised the consequences of mass migration well before most politicians in Westminster.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise.

They see the impacts on their communities every day – whether in terms of crime, housing costs, or through the pressure that it puts on public services.

Yet many in Westminster are still determined to bury their heads in the sand.

They refuse to recognise that mass migration has been a complete failure – and they certainly don’t want to uncover anything which might validate concerns. Chief among those in denial is the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who has made clear time and again that he does not understand the public’s concerns about mass migration.

It’s why, last Wednesday, he forced Labour MPs to conceal the data about migrant crime, voting down Conservative proposals to uncover the truth. The amendment that I brought forward to the Government’s Sentencing Bill would have forced the Justice Secretary to provide quarterly crime stats broken down by the background of the offenders. The public deserves to know the truth about who is entering our country, and they deserve to know the truth about how mass migration is changing our country.

Last Wednesday, every MP had a choice.

They could have voted for our amendment, which would have compelled the Government to publish the migrant crime data. That means the background of offenders by their nationality, visa status, immigration status, and route of entry, recorded and released in every criminal case. It would give us the full picture about crime and mass migration. Crucially, it would allow us to design an immigration system which bears public safety in mind.

Or, they could have chosen to continue the cover-up.

Shamefully, Keir Starmer ordered Labour MPs to do just that. That’s despite Starmer’s repeated promises of a ‘transparency revolution’. Last week, he abandoned those apparently long-held convictions, and chose to block migrant crime data from being released.

The reason for this is as simple as it is disgraceful. Like so many in the political establishment, Starmer is squeamish about confronting the realities of mass migration. He’d rather foreign nationals continue to commit crime than face up to the reality that our historically unusual levels of immigration have caused immense harm to the country.

It’s truly spineless behaviour.

I’ve been calling for transparency on this issue for a long time. This is data that’s published openly in other European countries, like Denmark. Increasingly, our European neighbours are able to have rational, data-driven conversations about the impact of migration from different parts of the world. Unfortunately, the British people have repeatedly been denied the same courtesy.

Starmer’s continuation of the cover-up means that we don’t have all the facts – facts which should be informing how we keep the public safe, and how we design our immigration system. In turn, this is putting the British people at risk.

And it’s not as if concern about crime and migration is the product of mere speculation. Indicative data shows that there’s huge variation between the crime rates of different migrant groups. Some nationalities have a higher crime rate than British citizens. Albanians nationals, for instance, are 153 times more likely to go to prison for drug offences than British nationals, while Afghans and Eritreans are more than 20 times more likely to be convicted of sex crimes. Others, like Indian or French nationals, have a lower or similar rate of criminal convictions.

Clearly, where certain migrant groups are overrepresented in committing certain types of crime, we must be able to say so openly. And we must change our immigration system to protect the public.

After all, the only purpose of our immigration system should be to serve the interests of the British people. Ensuring the public’s safety is a critical part of that story – alongside a full and frank conversation about the economic contributions of different nationalities.

But to be able to have this conversation properly, we need the full, verified data.

Like many before him, Starmer refuses. He chooses to cover it up. It’s because he, like many of his Labour colleagues, is ideologically committed to mass migration. When inconvenient facts undermine his assumptions, he tries to stop those facts from being reported. That’s the sign of a Prime Minister who isn’t governing in the national interest.

And it’s not a one off, either. Last week Starmer resisted the rape gang inquiry and has allowed it to be manipulated – with attempts to change the scope and control the questions. He stood by Jess Phillips, the Safeguarding Minister who has described survivor testimony as “misinformation” and whose behaviour had led to the resignation of five victims from the Government’s own consultation panel.

The British people deserve so much better.

They deserve the truth.