Robert Jenrick has warned public patience has “snapped” after highlighting alarming figures indicating that 40% of sex‑crime charges in London since 2018 have been brought against foreign nationals. And the shadow Justice Minister also pointed out that Afghan and Eritrean nationals were 20 times more likely to be convicted of a sexual crime than a British national.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Shadow Justice Minister and former Immigration Minister said communities were “being wrecked” by illegal migration, while insisting protests outside asylum hotels were understandable. He told Nick Robinson: “I respect those people who are peacefully protesting outside hotels this weekend. “I understand why they feel so concerned—they’re seeing their communities damaged.”
The 40% figure is based on Metropolitan Police charge data reported last month after a Freedom of Information request, showing that out of nearly 7,800 sexual offence charges in the capital since 2018, more than 2,800 were brought against foreign nationals.
That figure rises to just over 40% when those with unknown nationality are included. This is despite non-British citizens making up less than 25% of London’s population.
Mr Jenrick said that while legal migration includes groups statistically less likely to offend—such as Americans, Germans and Indians—data around illegal migration was deeply troubling.
He explained: “The basic problem with illegal migration is that we simply know nothing about these people. They’re undocumented people, mostly men who are coming across the Channel, breaking into our country in flagrant abuse of our laws and then being dumped in communities, often in luxury hotels.”
Mr Robinson pressed Mr Jenrick on whether linking migration to sexual crime risked “fuelling hatred” and he insisted: “You just have to be honest with the public.”
He further argued that the Government had a duty to publish the immigration status and nationality of offenders to restore public trust.
Referencing a protest in London last night, Mr Jenrick said: “Mums and grandmothers out on the streets are voicing legitimate concerns.”
Campaigners have accused the former minister of stoking division, but crime data paints a worrying picture.
An FOI submitted by the Daily Telegraph suggested that, in terms of conviction rates per 10,000 of population, Afghan nationals had about 59 convictions per 10,000, roughly 22 times the British rate, while Eritrean nationals followed closely at 53.6 per 10,000, also over 20 times the rate for Britons (2.66 per 10,000).
According to separate FOI data obtained by GB News, foreign nationals accounted for up to 15% of sex crime convictions across England and Wales in recent years—despite forming around 9% of the population.
Mr Jenrick said unless policymakers confront these realities head-on, “we risk a repeat of the rape gang scandal where horrendous crimes were covered up because of the identity of the perpetrators.” He called on the Government to begin publishing quarterly totals on offenders’ nationality and immigration status as a matter of urgency.
Speaking on Today subsequently, immigration Angela Eagle said of Mr Jenrick’s remarks: “He did actually say that we don’t have good data at the moment, and yet he’s asserting with great certainty data points that I don’t know where he’s got them from, so it’s difficult for me to criticise from from a data point of view, but he’s admitted in that in that interview, that we don’t have good data.”
