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Spectator
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Demographics is the new dividing line on the right
It's an ominous time for a state-of-the-nation conference. Each week, the shores we defended against Hitler, Napoleon and the Spanish Armada are breached by hundreds of foreign men, while asylum seekers make up 'a significant proportion' of those currently being investigated for the grooming of British children. Earlier this month, there were days of violent anti-immigration riots in Ballymena. The five Gaza independents elected last year marked the grim rise of electoral sectarianism in the UK, a trend that is only set to accelerate. Academics and government insiders, despairing at the state of Britain, fret about looming civil war along ethnic lines. 'Now and England', a one-day conference hosted by the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation this week in Westminster, was billed as 'exploring nation, culture, and identity in a time of change and renewal'. In truth, 'a time of decline and crisis' would probably have been more apposite. At the root of each issue lies mass, unasked for immigration and the resultant demographic change. The figures are bleak. On current trends, white British are expected to be a minority in Britain by 2063, according to a recent study by Prof Matt Goodwin; the figure is even sooner for England. The Centre for Migration Control forecasts that if nothing changes, by 2035, one quarter of the population will be foreign-born, with one third of the of the population a first- or second-generation migrant. Fewer than one in four children in Greater London's schools are white British. To the predominantly younger right-wingers in attendance, along with the country, such trends are deeply alarming. Yet do political leaders on the right feel the same way? When Reform's Richard Tice was pressed on Goodwin's demographics projections recently on GB News, for instance, he scarcely seemed bothered. The question of the conference, then, was just how seriously it would take these issues. What is England without the English? Robert Jenrick gave it his best shot with the opening keynote. 'Mass immigration lies at the root of… so many of our problems', he said. Reckless border policies, his own party's included, had eroded our 'sense of home'. He reiterated calls for a legally binding cap on immigration and ECHR reform. It wasn't nothing, but a stump speech was hardly going to break the Overton window. Next came a worthwhile panel on cultural renewal, before the second keynote by Dr James Orr, Cambridge academic and Nat Con grandee. 'England is slipping away', he warned gravely, and the cause was 'hyper-liberalism'. It was a philosopher's way of saying that we had recklessly imported millions of foreigners in the vain pursuit of GDP growth. But it was notable that even this conservative luminary seemed to be dancing around the issue somewhat. It was on the final panel, 'England's Past and England's future' that things came to a head. Danny Kruger MP spoke of Bede, the common law, and the importance of homogeneity, but it all remained rather abstract. Apparently, what we needed was a 'violent rebellion against encroaching ideas' and to 'tame the technium'. A leading light of the class of 2019, Kruger seemed to have forgotten why his party was turfed out with such disgust at the last election. Robert Tombs spoke about historical memory. Rupert Lowe MP ranged widely on statism, Blair's constitutional revolution, the rape gangs and free speech, but demographic change didn't feature. We had all been waiting to hear from Thomas Skinner, the former Apprentice star and small business owner known for cheerily belting out 'Bosh!' on social media and seemingly eyeing a tilt at the London mayoralty (he wouldn't be drawn). But if he had any concerns about immigration and cultural change he never made them explicit, instead preferring populist bromides ('England is about the people'). All of which meant that by the Q&A, the young audience had grown restive. Up stepped one mid-20s professional to speak for England. He noted that while Kruger had spoken of greater localism – 'watching the barley grow' from his Wiltshire idyll – this was hardly much of a solution when demographic change has already rendered some English councils corrupt tribal fiefdoms. Being from Rotherham, he said, he would know. 'So my question is, if we reach a juncture where democracy becomes a zero-sum game between different ethnic and religious blocs, what feasible future is there for it?' It was like a dam breaking: suddenly, thunderous applause and whoops filled the 200-seat lecture theatre, the loudest we had heard all day. (Later, several people went to congratulate him.) Skinner seemed uncomfortable, while Lowe was making notes. Piling on the pressure, there followed the voice of Carl Benjamin of the Lotus Eaters, noting how the central question of demographics had loomed over the whole conference largely unsaid. He then went after Danny Kruger for a remark in his speech that 'anyone can become English', also drawing applause. The panel tried to answer, but it was clear they were on uncomfortable territory. 'I detect a very strong desire for action to restore the basis of our polity lest we lose it altogether', noted Kruger, gingerly. Rupert Lowe offered simply that people who come to Britain ought to speak English and pay their taxes; Skinner had gone out for a phone call. Tombs at least volunteered that we should ban postal voting and cousin marriage. But in his view, the best approach would be to 'clone Katharine Birbalsingh', the headmistress of the ultra-diverse and disciplinarian Michaela School in West London. If you've seen 'little girls with headscarves on reciting Kipling and singing the national anthem' he said, 'you think becoming English is quite possible if you want to do it, and if you're encouraged to do it and indeed required to do it'. Tombs then argued that being English was something that 'we all learn'. This is the nub of the issue: the largely generational divide that is becoming increasingly visible on the British right. There are many who prefer to ignore ethnicity, ancestry and demographics on the grounds that such topics are both immaterial and icky; there are even some who insist, against all the available evidence, that multiculturalism has been a success. On the other hand there are those who are unapologetic about believing that the English are an ethnic group, that England is our home, and that the more diverse our society becomes, the less happy it will be. Such sentiments would have been common sense to most people throughout human history. It is ordinary and natural to identify with one's ethnic group. It is also ordinary and natural for a people to understand itself as a people. Yet for the past 60 years, as woke moral guardrails have expanded throughout our culture, such sentiments have been rendered deeply taboo. If that taboo is now being broken, it is not before time.
Spectator
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Foreign nationals convicted of a quarter of sex assaults on women
Britain's grooming gangs scandal has dominated the news this week, after the publication of Baroness Casey's review on Monday. Now data from the Ministry of Justice has emerged showing that over a quarter of sex assaults on women – that have been successfully prosecuted in the UK – were committed by foreign nationals. It's quite the stat… The data, which came to light through Freedom of Information requests, revealed that of the 1,453 sex assault convictions on women in 2024, 26 per cent were foreign nationals. There are suggestions that the real total could be higher, given that those 8 per cent recorded as having perpetrators of 'unknown' nationalities could also include foreign nationals. Casey's review revealed, as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Commons on Monday afternoon, that disproportionate numbers of Asian and Pakistani men were responsible for grooming gang abuse – while consecutive governments and authorities failed to act due to concerns about racism. More than that, the audit found that both foreign nationals and asylum seekers were involved in a 'significant proportion' of 12 active and ongoing police investigations into grooming gangs. The Centre for Migration Control think tank got hold of the data on sex crimes – which also found that foreign nationals for over 20 per cent of all rape convictions last year. Good heavens… Baroness Casey did say, however, that while the report found an overrepresentation of Pakistani men in cases of child sexual exploitation, white men were more commonly suspects in cases of child abuse. The crossbench peer has also taken aim this week at the authorities who failed victims, the police and their ability to only 'half-collect' race data, and at politicians for the 'politicisation' of the issue. On that note, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has taken a pop at Tory leader Kemi Badenoch – claiming when her party was in power she did not raise the issue of grooming gangs 'not once', while he was 'calling even then for mandatory reporting' – while the Conservatives have claimed the issue is one of 'borders, beyond criminal justice'. The Labour lot certainly has their work cut out…
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Where 'soft-touch' Britain's asylum seekers are REALLY coming from
Citizens from the US, Australia and Scandinavia are trying to claim asylum in Britain, official figures suggest. Asylum claims have spiralled to all-time highs in the wake of the small boats fiasco, with 108,000 applications lodged in 2024. Pakistan was the most common country of origin (10,542), followed by Afghanistan (8,508), Iran (8,099), Bangladesh (7,225) and Syria (6,680). Those five countries alone made up 38 per cent of all asylum applications last year. Yet critics argue that applications of residents from wealthy Western countries with no major human rights abuses are proof that we've become a 'soft touch'. In 2024, there were 99 claims from the US, 22 from Italy, 20 from Portugal, 17 from France, and 10 from Australia. Separately, applications also came from the oil-rich states of Kuwait (1,936), Bahrain (203) and Saudi Arabia (202), as well as the Caribbean tourist hotspots of Trinidad and Tobago (444), St Vincent and the Grenadines (102) and Antigua and Barbuda (16). To be eligible for asylum, the Home Office states: 'You must have left your country and be unable to go back because you fear persecution.' The Home Office uses the claimant's primary/preferred nationality for dual nationals. In cases where there is a disputed nationality, officials log what they believe is true. Robert Bates, of the Centre for Migration Control, told MailOnline: 'Our asylum system is far too generous and is one of the most easily accessible in the world. 'It is incapable of weeding out individuals who are simply economic migrants that are chancing their arm. 'This is why people from peaceful and prosperous countries are lodging claims here, because they are all but guaranteed access to state handouts and support for their desired lifestyle. 'If they were genuine asylum seekers then they would have no qualms in resettling somewhere closer to their homeland, where the cultural and societal norms are more familiar. 'But Britain is now seen as the land of milk and honey.' The Home Office states that individuals claiming asylum in the UK must demonstrate they are unable to live safely in any part of their home country due to a well-founded fear of persecution. This could be based on their race, religion, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, political opinion, or any other factor that places them at risk due to the social, cultural, religious, or political situation in their country. Only once asylum seekers are officially granted refugee status or another humanitarian protection status are they allowed to work, study and claim benefits such as Universal Credit in the UK. When it came to initial asylum applications from the US, 13 were granted and 45 refused in 2024 – giving an approval rate of 22 per cent. Of the grants, four were given humanitarian protection status and nine refugee status. Almost all claims from countries experiencing ongoing conflict such as Syria (98 per cent) and Sudan (99 per cent) were granted. Albania had one of the lowest rates (3.7 per cent). On average in 2024, 53 per cent of applications were refused at initial decision – not counting withdrawals. However, there have been a number of high-profile cases of former asylum seekers being allowed to stay due to extremely controversial reasons. One such case from earlier this year involved an immigration tribunal ruling that an Albanian criminal would be allowed to stay because his son had a 'distaste' for foreign chicken nuggets. As well as breaking down asylum seekers by nationality, the data also breaks it down by gender. It reveals that in 2024, three-quarters of applicants were male. The data shows that asylum seekers are also overwhelmingly young, with two-thirds aged under 30. Just 4 per cent were over 50. What is an asylum seeker? Asylum is protection given by a country to someone fleeing from persecution in their own country. An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for asylum and is awaiting a decision on whether they will be granted refugee status. An asylum applicant who does not qualify for refugee status may still be granted leave to remain in the UK for humanitarian or other reasons. An asylum seeker whose application is refused at initial decision may appeal the decision through an appeal process and, if successful, may be granted leave to remain. Britain now spends £5.4billion on asylum, including housing some in hotels and giving them £49.18 per week if their accomodation does not provide meals. Before the small boats crisis unfolded in the English channel, the annual bill for the entire asylum system stood in the region of £732m. The route was almost never used prior to 2018 but since then, around 148,000 people have made the journey – often paying £5,000 to criminal gangs for a one way ticket. Criminal gangs from Albania have been seen brazenly advertising a life in the UK on social media, enticing them with jobs in illegal cannabis 'farms'. Small boat arrivals now make-up nearly a third of all asylum claims. Others arrive through legal routes such as on a student visa before they lodge an application. In March there was a report that detailed at least a 100-fold increase in the number of foreign nationals arriving here as 'skilled workers' and then claiming to be refugees. Asylum claims made by this category of visa-holder jumped from 53 in 2022 to 5,300 in the first ten months of last year. Alp Mehmet, the chairman for Migration Watch UK, said: 'The diverse nationalities now claiming asylum shows what a soft touch we've become and that the system is not only a huge cost to the taxpayer but also not fit for purpose. 'For so long as the government remains in denial about the total failure of its policies, both the flow of illegal migrants and the costs will go on climbing.' When an application is refused at initial decision, it may be appealed. Between 2004 and 2021, around three-quarters of applicants refused asylum at initial decision lodged an appeal. Nearly a third of those appeals were allowed. However, the quality of decision-making is often poor, with many refugees having to rely on the courts to award protection following an appeal of the Government's initial decision, according to The Refugee Council. The appeals process can be complex and lengthy, with people seeking asylum having to wait months in state-provided accommodation for their appeals to be heard. Mr Bates said: 'Our asylum system is a huge drain on the public finances. 'We must implement a strong deportation programme along with an effective freeze on new applications until, at least, we have got our house in order and costs under control. 'This is the only way to deter would-be economic migrants from attempting to take advantage of our hospitality.' It should be noted that while most grants of refuge have historically come via the UK's in-country asylum process, others have come via resettlement schemes following specific cases involving countries such as Ukraine, Syria, Hong Kong, and Afghanistan. This means refugees from these schemes are not recorded in the figures for general asylum seekers. These numbers can be quite significant, for instance, the number of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in the UK in 2022 (155,000) was around the same as the number of people granted refuge in the UK from all origins, in total, between 2014 and 2021. Although Ukrainians arriving under these schemes are often referred to as refugees, they do not have the legal status as refugees that are granted asylum in the usual way. Instead they derive their right to live and work in the UK from the conditions of the visa schemes. The Home Office has previously claimed the government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain and that it is determined to restore order to the operation. It said it remains resolute in its commitment to remove those with no legal right to be in the UK. Since the election, it said it has returned 6,781 failed asylum seekers, a 23 per cent increase in the same period 12 months prior
Gulf Insider
21-03-2025
- Business
- Gulf Insider
UK Taxpayers Funded £7.6 Billion In Welfare For Migrants
The Centre for Migration Control (CMC) estimates that around 1,158,000 foreign nationals received universal credit for low income individuals, after collating Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data. The figures are from 2023 when a supposedly conservative government was in power, and before the current far left Labour government was elected. NEW: Over one million migrants are claiming a working-age benefit, costing the British taxpayer billions each year. It is fundamentally unjust that people can come to the UK and begin claiming benefits after just five years. — Centre for Migration Control (@migrationCtrl) March 17, 2025 The CMC notes that the numbers will continue to increase given the ever increasing record numbers of foreigners being allowed into the UK. 'Immigration is good for our economy.' — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) March 17, 2025 Migrants in the UK become eligible for universal credit, and the same benefits as natives, when they are either granted refugee status or indefinite leave to remain in the country. The £7.6 billion figure doesn't even include support payments and accommodation given to migrants awaiting to hear back on their asylum claims, which totalled another £5.4 billion. As we've highlighted, these 'refugees' get to spend their time in lavish hotels at taxpayer expense. Or they're sent to quaint villages where residents don't know what has hit them. The Centre for Migration Control also found that 40 nationalities were more likely to receive universal credit than British citizens, with migrants from the Congo most likely to be on benefits, with 445 claims per 1,000 people. Other nationalities most likely to be on benefits included Iraqis at 434 per 1,000, Afghans at 414, Algerians at 361, Eritreans at 355, Syrians at 352, Somalians at 336, and Iranians at 334, while only 100 in 1000 actual British people claimed universal credit in 2023. Karl Williams, research director at the Centre for Policy Studies, urged that the figures reveal the government need to have a 'much more selective immigration system that prioritises migrants likely to be substantial net contributors.' Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called the benefits figures 'unacceptable' adding athat it 'is immoral that British taxpayers are subsidising nationals of other countries on an industrial scale. No wonder our taxes are so high.' Philip further stated, 'Research shows low-wage migrants actually cost other taxpayers money. This is why the era of mass migration has to end.' Previous stats compiled by the CMC have revealed that almost 1.7 million foreigners residing in the UK are out of work or 'economically inactive,' costing taxpayers an estimated £8.5 billion per year. The £8.5 billion estimate doesn't even include the costs of asylum seekers, as well as foreign students, meaning the actual cost to a British taxpayers is probably much higher. In addition, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has revealed that the Home Office spent a staggering £7.9 billion in just three years on asylum, border, and visa management when its budget was just £320 million. Click here to read more Also read: London Heathrow Shut Down for the Day After Major Power Outage
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Foreigners commit nearly a quarter of sex crimes
Foreigners commit up to a quarter of sex crimes, according to the first data analysis of its kind. Data from the Ministry of Justice, obtained under freedom of information laws, show 15 per cent of sexual offences including rape were accounted for by foreign nationals between 2021 and 2023. A further 8 per cent of convictions were recorded as unknown nationalities. Those labelled 'unknown' are likely to largely include non-British nationals, taking the total likely to have been committed by foreigners up to 23 per cent. This is despite census data showing foreign nationals make up just 9.3 per cent of the population. Two nationalities – Afghans and Eritreans – were more than 20 times more likely to account for sexual offence convictions than British citizens, according to the data. Foreign nationals were overall 71 per cent more likely than Britons to be responsible for sex crime convictions. The data, drawn from the police national computer, shows that there were 16,771 convictions for sexual offences carried out by someone with a known nationality between 2021 and 2023 and migrants accounted for 2,500 of these. The highest numbers of sex offence convictions were accounted for by Romanians (987), Poles (208), Indians (148) and Pakistanis (144). However, the rates, based on convictions per 10,000 of the population put Afghans, with 77 convictions, at the top with a rate of 59 per 10,000. That is 22.3 times that of Britons. They were followed by Eritrea, which accounted for 59 convictions at a rate of 53.6 per 10,000 of their population. Britons accounted for 12,619 sex offence convictions, representing a rate of 2.66 per per 10,000 of their population in England and Wales. The disclosure, through FOIs obtained by the Centre for Migration Control, comes as Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will on Monday announce new terror-style powers to tag and restrict the movements of dangerous foreign nationals to protect the public Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the figures were shocking. 'We need to kick out all foreign national offenders. Yet immigration judges routinely allow dangerous foreign offenders to stay here on spurious human rights grounds – ignoring the rights of UK citizens to be protected. 'That is why we will today be tabling an amendment to the Borders Bill to disapply the Human Rights Act to immigration matters. It will then be much easier to kick out these dangerous foreign criminals who are responsible for so much crime.' The Telegraph has previously revealed foreign national arrest rates but never before has there been data on the true rate of criminality based on convictions. The only government data is foreign prisoners and deportations by nationality, prompting allegations of 'institutional cover up' over migrant crime rates. The data also reveals rates by nationality for convictions of all types of crimes. According to the new data, 872,488 convictions were recorded on the police national computer between 2021 and 2023, of which 833,522 had identifiable nationality information. Foreign nationals accounted for 104,000 but there were a further 38,966 where the nationality was 'unknown'. This means that foreign nationals accounted for between one in eight (12.5 per cent) and as many as one in six (16.4 per cent) of convictions in England and Wales. Foreign nationals were 69 per cent more likely than the British population to be convicted for drug crime and 25 per cent more likely for theft. For all crime types, they were 39 per cent more likely. Immigration experts said a large number of those with 'unknown' nationalities were likely be foreign nationals who have a smaller footprint on existing ID systems, or were charged remotely and will be more reluctant to provide information that could affect their immigration status. The data place Albanians at the top of the nationality crime league table by conviction rate. Romanians accounted for the highest number of convictions at 15,701, followed by Poles (13,333) and Albanians (7,653). However, the rate for Albanians – at 4,028 per 10,000 of their census population in England and Wales – put them at the top of the crime league table with a rate 30 times that of British nationals' 136 per 10,000. Albanians were followed by Moldova, Congo, Namibia and Somalia. Sixty-six nationalities have a higher conviction rate per 10,000 than Britons. Foreign nationals accounted for between 8.8 per cent and 12 per cent of violent crime convictions between 2021 and 2023. The Congolese had the highest rate at 186 convictions per 10,000 of their population, 12 times the UK rate and ahead of Somalia at 129 per 10,000 and Afghanistan at 101 per 10,000, according to the data. Up to 15,500, or 15 per cent of the total 104,000 convictions for drug-related offences were accounted for by foreign nationals with Albanians responsible for at least four times more than any other overseas nationality. Foreign nationals were responsible for between 11.4 per cent and 12.6 per cent of convictions for theft in England and Wales between 2021 and 2023. Algerians were 18 times more likely to be convicted of theft as British citizens Foreign nationals accounted for 12.5 per cent of weapon possession convictions – a rate 46 per cent higher than British citizens. Albanians were 14 times more likely to be convicted of weapons possession than British citizens. Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, said: 'These figures lay bare the cost of mass migration on our home, reflecting tens of thousands of destroyed lives and the loss of social capital. The swift removal of every foreign national who is convicted of an offence is a clear starting point for beginning to reverse the damage. 'Far more can and must be done by the Home Office to vet those individuals afforded the privilege of entering our country. It is their primary duty of government to keep the public safe.' Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, who laid amendments last year seeking to force the Government to publish such data, said: 'Not only is mass migration making us poorer, but this data proves it's also making us dramatically less safe. Not only do we need to reduce overall migration radically, we also need to overhaul security vetting. 'It should not be surprising that migrants from cultures with backwards attitudes towards women are more likely to commit sexual crimes here in the UK. If we are serious about tackling violence against women and girls we need an immigration system that takes that into account and puts the safety of the British people first.' Home Office sources cautioned that the figures magnified the scale of foreign crime as migrants were disproportionately much younger than the UK population. Among groups such as Romanians, Poles and Albanians 80 per cent were 18 to 64, compared with only 60 per cent of British nationals. They also said the population estimates from 2021 were dated and underestimated the size of key populations such as Afghans, Albanians and Iraqis as thousands of migrants from those nationalities had arrived after that date in small boats across the Channel. A Home Office spokesman said: 'We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Any foreign nationals who commit heinous crimes should be in no doubt we will do everything to make sure they are not free on Britain's streets, including removal from the UK at the earliest possible opportunity. 'For the foreign criminals whose removal we are pursuing, but that we are presently unable to deport, we are introducing tougher restrictions, including the use of electronic tags, night-time curfews and exclusion zones. Breaching these conditions would be grounds for arrest and the individual could face imprisonment.' By Rob Bates It's fair to say that the Home Office is not held in the highest of esteem these days. Trust has been ground to an all-time low by a series of failures that have undermined our borders and allowed the relatively straightforward small boats issue to become a seemingly interminable crisis. A government department obsessed with the creation of diversity networks appears to have forgotten its primary responsibilities to the British public. But however low your estimation of the Home Office, it is frankly not low enough. This is an organisation which, since 2020, has been running a visa system that it knows will put us all at risk. Having cowed to pressure from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, it abandoned visa processing practices which made it harder for an individual from a high-risk nation to be awarded leave to enter the UK. The usual legal gambit of ECHR and Equality Act appeals were deployed by Left-wing lawyers to end, what they called, 'institutionally racist' practices which included putting certain countries on a so-called 'red list'. Many of the British public would describe the distinction between certain nationalities as 'common sense'. It is a fact that not all migration is the same. There is vast variation in the economic contribution of different nationalities coming to the UK, and it is the same when it comes to the issue of criminality. But we now have an immigration system that processes a would-be migrant from, say, Afghanistan, in the same way as one from New Zealand, Canada, or Australia. This is despite the conviction rate of Afghan nationals between 2021 and 2023 being 1,023 per 10,000 of the population, compared with just 17 convictions per 10,000 amongst the CANZUK population. Never-before-seen data, released today by the Centre for Migration Control, shows that between 2021 and 2023 there were over 100,000 foreign nationals convicted for a serious crime in England and Wales, and nearly 70 nationalities with a criminality rate that is higher than the British public. We have been forced to endure thousands of socially destructive crimes for rape, violence, robbery, fraud, and drug offences that would simply not have blighted our communities were it not for mass migration. Few politicians feel comfortable enough to identify the causal link between open borders and sexual assault, or the drug epidemic, or the ubiquity of theft. But they owe it to the public to do so. For each of these offences, the rate of conviction for foreign nationals is far, far higher than that of the British public. For instance, foreign nationals commit sexual offences at a rate that is 70 per cent higher than the British public, and this is before we even take account of the shockingly low arrest and conviction rate for such crimes. And the data clearly shows which types of migrants are more likely to commit these unforgivable assaults on women and girls. North Africans are convicted at a rate 6.6 times higher than Brits, Middle Easterners at a rate 3.8 times higher, and Sub-Saharan Africans at 2.6 times the rate. But the Home Office remains idle, ignoring this vital data which it has at its disposal and doubling down on its 'come one, come all' immigration policy. Last year alone, over 54,000 long-term visas were awarded to individuals from nations with a conviction rate for sexual offences that is between 4.3 times and 22.2 times higher than the British population. If we are not going to adjust our immigration policy, then we will need to get far tougher on deporting foreign convicts. Right now, the country is having to spend half a billion pounds a year to accommodate 10,000 foreign nationals in British prisons. Many are calling for their deportation, but we should not stop with those incarcerated for their crimes. Any individual invited into our country who breaks our laws should be a candidate for removal. The elephant in the room cannot be ignored any longer. Our streets are objectively less safe. People now report petty crime to their followers on social media rather than to the police, drug gangs operated with impunity, and you are probably more likely to see a weapon on the streets of London than you are a police officer. For those still campaigning for looser migration policies, simply turning a blind eye to these facts and instead sheepishly muttering about the economic payoffs, or the virtues of diversity, no longer cuts it. These figures tell the tale of tens of thousands of upended lives; of hundreds of millions, if not billions, being drained from the British economy; and of the heartbreaking destruction of social capital that is needed for national flourishment. Rob Bates is research director at the Centre for Migration Control Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
