Shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick has welcomed the recent Labour decision to compile ‘league tables’ showing the nationalities of convicted criminals. For years there has been a widespread—and demonstrable—suspicion that certain communities inside Britain are more prone to serious and violent crime than others, which has been met with official excuses as to why the figures are not available.
While the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice/Shadow Lord Chancellor condemns the previous inflexible response—calling out the Home Office for its “computer says no” approach to sharing statistics—he argues that the data compilation should be more thorough, by also disclosing felons’ visa and asylum status. Yet his critics are asking why such measures weren’t taken under previous Tory governments—and whether the real issue here is actually Jenrick’s leadership ambitions.
