Britons believe Andy Burnham is covering up migrant crime data amid court battle

Britons believe Andy Burnham is covering up migrant crime by appealing against the release of data on offences committed by foreign nationals between 2018 and 2024, bombshell new polling has revealed.

A survey, which was conducted by Find Out Now on behalf of the Centre for Migration Control, found 50 per cent of voters think Labour is deliberately hiding information about crime committed by foreign-born convicts.

The figure - which included 74 per cent of Tory voters and 88 per cent of Reform UK supporters - dwarfs the 20 per cent of Britons who disagree.

Seven-in-10 Britons also believe foreign-born criminals should face deportation, including 60 per cent of 2024 Labour voters.

The findings come after the Home Office revealed that 21,294 convicted foreign offenders facing removal are living in communities across Britain.

New analysis also found that criminals from Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Bangladesh are significantly less likely to face deportation.

Figures obtained through Freedom of Information requests show 773 Nigerian offenders were awaiting deportation in June 2025.

However, just 37 had been returned over the previous 12 months.

The data release came just days after it was reported that Brussels is pushing Labour for looser rules on the deportation of EU nationals.

Albania, which is hoping to conclude its EU accession talks next year, accounts for the single largest foreign-born prison population group in England and Wales.

Poland, Romania and Lithuania also feature prominently among the nationalities with the highest prison populations.

The issue is likely to intensify scrutiny of any future arrangements with Brussels that could make it more difficult for Britain to remove foreign offenders.

Critics fear closer cooperation with the bloc could weaken the Government's ability to deport EU nationals convicted of crimes, particularly if rules governing the treatment of European citizens are relaxed.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice is currently appealing to overturn a ruling by the Information Commissioner to allow the release of data on foreign offending in England and Wales from 2018 to 2024.

The Centre for Migration Control, which is leading the battle for the release of more data, was told the cost of providing the information would be disproportionate and that some of the data could lead to the identification of individuals in breach of their rights to privacy if it were published.

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However, both arguments were subsequently rejected by the information watchdog.

Recent research found Afghan nationals were seven times more likely to commit sexual offences.

Robert Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control, told GB News: "The public have clearly lost faith in this government to protect our borders and keep us safe.

“The vast majority of the country wants every single foreign criminal removed, yet Andy Burnham's 'EU reset' looks set to make it even harder to deport foreign criminals.

“The Ministry of Justice must now publish migrant crime data in full, end the cover-up, and let the public see the full scale of the crisis.”

Meanwhile, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told The Daily Express: “It took me a year to get these figures out of the Home Office, which spent a year trying to hide them and only released them last week when faced with an appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office.

“Now the shameful truth is clear – while large numbers of Eastern European criminals are deported, very few are deported to countries outside Europe.

“Just five per cent of Nigerian serious criminals in the community were deported last year and only three per cent of Jamaicans. Many have gone on to commit serious offences, including murder and rape, when they should have been deported after their first crime.

“They use often made-up human rights, asylum and modern slavery claims to stay here. Shabana Mahmood once even wrote a letter protesting against the deportation of any Jamaican criminal.

“I’m sick to the stomach of the supposed rights of foreign criminals being put ahead of keeping British women and girls safe.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Any foreign national who receives a prison sentence in the UK is referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity and will be barred from ever returning. Returns are at their highest level in nearly a decade.

“Nearly 12,000 foreign criminals, including murderers and rapists, have been returned or deported in the two years since the last election – a 41 per cent increase on the two years prior.”

GB News has approached the Ministry of Justice for comment.