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Government to publish 'league table' of foreign criminals | James O'Brien on LBC
Apr 29, 2025
James O'Brien speaks to listeners as the nationalities of foreign criminals living in the UK will be published for the first time under plans expected to be announced on Tuesday.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is understood to have ordered officials to publish data by the end of the year showing the nationalities and crimes of those awaiting deportation.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the announcement showed Labour had “buckled” under pressure from the Conservatives to disclose the data.
Government sources insisted the move was only possible because Ms Cooper had ordered Home Office statisticians to overhaul their systems after they cited poor data quality when refusing to answer questions about the nationalities of foreign offenders.
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0:00
We turn our attention next to a story which I would really like to have known what the late Pope made of
0:05
A story I'm somewhat surprised to see on a Labour party or on a Labour government's to-do list
0:12
A surprise that is compounded when we read that honest Bob Jenrick has greeted it enthusiastically
0:18
The late Pope's values, the things that he seemed to stand for
0:23
seem to me to be almost anathema to what Yvette Cooper is expected to announce today
0:28
And sometimes when I find myself thinking things like that, I find myself wondering whether I am missing something
0:36
And so there'll be a bit of a why to this question as well as a what. Migrant crime league tables will be published by the government for the first time under plans due to be announced this week
0:48
Now, I'm going to own up to a degree of footballification here, I think
0:53
And that footballification is the word that I use to describe political loyalty that can sometimes blind you to political reality
1:02
So if somebody like Robert Jenner could come out with this, I would be very confident in saying it is absolutely blatant, a blatant appeal to racists
1:12
It is a blatant attempt to steal Nigel Farage's breakfast by appealing to precisely the kind of nativist bile that those two men seem to dine on daily
1:21
but if a Labour government is bringing it in I have to remind myself
1:27
that you have to react to the policy not the person, not the politician
1:32
you have to react to the politics, not the politician so if a Labour government is bringing it in
1:36
I have to argue that this is blatant this is hideous, this is a desperate attempt to steal Nigel Farage's lunch
1:44
this is a desperate attempt to appeal to nativist hatred people who truly think that the country you come from
1:51
is an indication of who you are and what you are, and that that makes you inferior to them
1:57
Listen, I want to be wrong because it is a Labour government and because we don't historically associate Labour governments
2:05
with far-right rhetoric, although that seems to be changing, not just in this country
2:10
But I cannot see, for the life of me, why else they would be doing this
2:16
So the figures will be published by the end of the year
2:20
She was originally told that it may not be possible. Apparently it is
2:25
Albanians, Romanians and Poles are expected to be among the worst offenders
2:30
That will be largely, but not entirely, because of statistics, basic statistics
2:38
and the nature of some criminal gangs. What do we gain as a population from this
2:44
So the argument from the government is that it would allow the country to come to terms with the countries to which deportation of foreign criminals is most urgent So we establish which countries have the most criminals committing crime or the most citizens committing crimes in this country
3:04
and therefore we can come to an arrangement with them about achieving a deportation
3:09
which makes me wonder why they need to publish the League tables
3:15
I don't know what else this is designed to do but to feed hatred
3:21
and you can tell from my voice I really want to be wrong
3:24
I'd love to be able to see a sensible rationale for this policy that doesn't just sound like
3:30
giving permission to people to hate polls or to hate, not that the kind of people
3:34
that they're appealing to need any permission at all to hate polls or Romanians
3:38
or Albanians not only a Labour source has told the Times not only are we deporting foreign criminals
3:45
at a rate never seen when Chris Philp and Robert Jenrick were in charge at the Home Office
3:50
Listen, it's a bit of a blunt instrument, but deporting foreign criminals is not as controversial
3:55
as the idea of the league table to me. You're more than welcome to tell me why I'm wrong about that
4:01
But we will also be publishing far more information about that cohort of offenders
4:08
Why? 0345 6060973. So you can speculate all you want on this
4:16
I am. I am. Why is the Labour government determined to publish far more information about the nationalities of criminals than ever before
4:32
And you can come at this from whatever angle you want. You can. And I honestly don't think you will because I can't see that you could explain to me why this isn't as unpleasant as it appears
4:43
and what are we supposed to do with the information? So if we discover that Poles commit more crimes than, I don't know, Spaniards
4:52
are we supposed to treat Poles and Spaniards differently? What am I supposed to do with this information
5:00
It's not ethnicity, it's nationality. So, I mean, are they going to publish the fact that the massive, massive, massive majority
5:07
of crimes committed in this country are committed by non-forearners? just in terms of simple statistics
5:12
that's not an opinion, it's counting are we going to start having conversations about the white
5:16
middle class and the white working class and their peculiar proclivity for certain kinds of crimes
5:21
what else is the reasoning behind this? It's actually this happens to me occasionally
5:27
I'm simultaneously chilled to the core by it but also convinced that I must be
5:32
missing something. Politicians return to parliament today after the Easter recess, the announcement is expected
5:38
to be made today. The question I want you to answer is this, why are they doing it? 0345 6060 973
5:47
Why do you think they are doing it? Okay, because for the life of me, I cannot see what the benefit
5:53
will be to discover that Albanians Romanians and Poles as is already widely accepted are going to be among the worst offenders in this country helps us do what
6:07
Isabel and a couple of you are being very glass half full on this one
6:11
and suggesting that it will actually show what a small percentage of crime is committed by immigrants
6:16
Well, yes, that's also true, but it doesn't explain why you need the league table
6:21
They could just tell us repeatedly about the proportion or the percentage of crime that is committed by British citizens
6:26
and set it up against the percentage of crime that is committed by non-British citizens
6:31
You bring poverty into the equation and it's likely that there's going to be a higher incidence of crime among the poorest parts of the population
6:38
Do we know what star sign is that? I'm going to Google it
6:42
Is there a star sign that's particularly prone to criminality? How would you phrase the question? Do we need to ask chat GPT
6:50
This one. Is any star sign more criminal? That's not best phrase
6:58
Let me have a look. Zodiac signs most likely to become criminals
7:02
I've got it. Lebrons. Lebron. Are you a Lebron? Any Lebrons in the house
7:09
Any Lebrons in the house? No. Well, there you go. You see. So, here you go. Here it is
7:13
Behaviour researchers have compiled studies to look at signs that have the highest number of criminals
7:18
um i listen it's it i it may not be entirely kosher this uh this research but it matters
7:25
apparently it's important to to work out sagittarius mostly optimist libra this sign has the most
7:32
criminal records and is usually well armed and highly dangerous that seems unlikely to me perhaps
7:37
i'm reading the wrong sources but you see what i mean what why would the nationality of a criminal
7:41
be more interesting to me than the star sign. The New York Post has done them in ascending order
7:50
Good news if you're a Taurus. Bad news if you are a Virgo
7:55
The most dangerous sign of the Zodiac. More Virgos caught committing crimes than any other star sign
8:03
You take my point. It seems to me to be about as helpful to the bigger picture
8:10
to the greater population than identifying the nationality of offenders. So I suppose I also want to hear from you
8:19
If you're like, I mean, if you're a foreign-born person living in this country
8:24
there's two stories. I should have knitted these two together. The world's best cancer doctors, scientists and researchers
8:30
are being put off moving to or staying in the UK by politicians' rhetoric on immigration, according to a leaked report
8:38
this is ysis being studied by the cabinet office and the department for science innovation
8:42
and technology the report says politicians messaging about the uk including around
8:48
immigration in general has a direct impact on our ability to attract and retain
8:53
talent so you read that in one newspaper this morning and then you read in another that migrant league tables will be published by the government for the first time
9:05
I want you to tell me why you think that they are doing this
9:09
0345 6060 973. I will give you the money myself. That's the great Les Dennis famously said if you can make it sound like a good idea
9:19
If you could just make it sound less ugly than it initially sounds
9:22
I'll take my medicine on footballification I don't think I'd be asking
9:26
maybe I'm being a bit unfair on myself maybe I would be asking this question if it was being brought in by
9:31
let's say a Rishi Sunak or a John Major if it was being brought in by an honest Bob Jenrick
9:38
or a Nigel Farage I'd be in no doubt whatsoever about what it was designed to do
9:42
and maybe the design is the same maybe it is an attempt to move into this
9:46
far-right nativist territory whereby they're enforcing all the Twitter accounts that think that your ethnicity or your nationality or your religion, of course
9:55
or your gender is an indication of your likelihood to commit certain crimes
10:00
But I can't, at 14 minutes past 11, for the life of me
10:04
see what the positives of this would be. Home Office will say, oh, it will help us come to arrangements
10:09
with the countries that we need to have better deportation deals with, to which I would say, well, why do you need to tell me
10:15
What is this designed to do? And that is my question to you
10:19
What do you think this is designed to do? Because it can't be designed to do the thing they say that it's designed to do
10:26
because they could do that without publishing the details, without releasing the details
10:30
And listen, I may have put you off slightly if you're in this category that I'm about to describe
10:35
but I don't want to put you off. Why do you welcome this? Why do you welcome this
10:43
And if you welcome it for, dare I say, the most obvious reasons, I'd cautiously suggest you're highly unlikely ever to vote for the Labour Party in your life
10:51
Why would anybody welcome this? And if you are a foreign-born resident of these islands
11:00
I'd particularly like to know how this makes you feel, especially when we set it alongside the story that we may discuss specifically later or later this week
11:09
about people now being put off coming here, people we need, cancer doctors, scientists, researchers
11:16
being actively put off coming to or staying in this country because of rhetoric on immigration
11:22
that's in your left hand and in your right hand you've got a Labour government announcing
11:28
that they're going to start publishing league tables of foreign criminals tell me those two things
11:34
aren't linked tell me that if somebody is not minded to come here
11:38
or is thinking of leaving their job as a cancer doctor because of the way we talk about immigrants
11:42
now in this country Tell me that a Labour government announcing league tables of crimes according to nationality isn't going to add to the sense that you are here, your presence is being suffered, your presence is being endured. Why else would they be doing this
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