Labour is terrified of publishing migrant crime data. It stinks of a cover-up - Nick Timothy

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Labour's refusal to release crime data by nationality looks increasingly like a cover-up, writes the Shadow Justice Secretary

It's impossible to govern effectively or have an informed public debate without proper data. Knowing who exactly is coming into our country, and which of those are committing crimes, should be a basic question of transparency. So migrant crime data must be published by nationality, right? Well, Labour say you're wrong.

For reasons that remain completely opaque, Labour have refused time and again to reveal to the public statistics on crimes committed by country of origin. This data is held by the Government – they just won't release it. They have tried to fight Freedom of Information requests, saying it will cost too much to publish the data – an excuse the courts have rejected. It's starting to sound like a cover-up

So it's unsurprising that victims of crimes perpetrated by foreign nationals have got together to write to Alex Norris, Labour's Justice Secretary, demanding that the truth be revealed. The signatories include Fiona Goddard, a victim of the rape gangs, one 14-year-old victim of sexual assault in Epping, where asylum seekers are housed in the controversial Bell Hotel, and the family of Rhiannon Whyte, who was murdered by a Sudanese national.

From the information we do have, the picture on foreign national offending is stark. Data retrieved by FOI from the Centre for Migration Control, which has been campaigning bravely on this issue, revealed that Afghans are more than 20 times more likely than the average British resident to be convicted of rape or sexual assault. And foreign nationals as a whole are 71 per cent more likely than British citizens to be convicted for sexual crimes.

And yet we persist with the farce of pretending that all nationalities and cultures are equally likely to commit any given offence.

"Most rapes are committed by British men", we are told – ignoring the per capita rate. Research by the Conservatives into international calls from prisons showed that 157,962 were made to Albania in a six-month period, equivalent to nearly 900 a day – a grossly disproportionate figure.

This is due in part to the huge over-representation of Albanians who are serving time – in many cases running organised crime gangs from prison. One in fifty Albanians living in Britain is in prison. And data that Labour have agreed to publish on foreign offender deportation orders shows Albanians and Kosovans topping the lists.

If all national groups posed an equal threat to innocent British people, why has the Government published guidance for asylum seekers explaining that in this country rape and domestic abuse are illegal, and women are treated as equals? This is not "information" that it feels the need to provide to the general public. We know from documentary footage that many illegal migrants view Britain as a prime hunting ground for sexual tourism, having been told about the supposed "availability" of British women.

The former Justice Secretary, David Lammy, fobbed me off when I asked why he wouldn't release the data, saying that there's plenty of information out there already. And so far his successor, Alex Norris, has remained silent. What is Labour trying to hide?

It's overwhelmingly likely that Labour's refusal to tell the public the truth is political. Revealing the data on crime rates by nationality would prove what we all deep down know to be the case – migrants from some countries are massively more prone to commit certain crimes than others. This is unsurprising, given the number of migrants to Britain in recent years who come from some of the most violent and misogynistic cultures on earth.

By hiding the truth, Labour are trying to keep the lid on a national scandal – that dangerous people are being imported to Britain on a huge scale – and to preserve the multiculturalist myth that all countries and cultures are equally peaceful, law-abiding and able to integrate. The data would blow this lie apart.

The cover-up is unsustainable: Labour must release the data it already holds on crime by nationality now.