The Leader of Lambeth Council, Cllr Martin Abrams, has supported the call for the government to publish data showing the nationality of the perpetrators of crimes in the UK.
Speaking on GB News he said: “I would have absolutely no objection to this data being published and then given to you know an independent scrutineer and expert to analyse because transparency is absolutely necessary in a functioning democracy.
“It is very strange that the government refused to release this data.
“What I won’t accept though is the leap from ‘some migrants are committing crime’ to ‘migration causes crime’ because that simply is not the case.
“The framing is that we are living in an absolute crisis where every single migrant that comes through this country is a sex offender. That is simply not the case.
“If you look at the list of those countries; you’ve got Iraq, you’ve got Syria, you’ve got you know all these countries that have been really badly impacted by Western wars over the last few decades that have cost the taxpayers in this country billions and billions of pounds.
“For a country that seems to be moving to an extremely hostile environment against migrants and refugees, we seem to love creating them.
“Victims of crime deserve justice wherever the perpetrators come from, whether it’s Bahrain, whether it’s Brixton, whether it’s Birmingham, wherever: victims of crime deserve justice.
“I think you were right to highlight the victims in this because their voices are often drowned out in all of this, and they need to be centered in this debate rather than focusing on you know questionable data from the Centre for Migration Control.
“I would stand shoulder to shoulder with [Alex White] about releasing that data and having full transparency in crime statistics. I think that’s absolutely vital.
“Trust in politics and politicians is at rock bottom. One of the reasons for that is it often seems like politicians are hiding behind the reality of the situation.
“Publish the data, let experts scrutinise it and then invite me back on and we can have a further debate.”
