Donald Trump sparked an international row today by linking rising crime in the UK to ‘radical Islamic terror’.
Stats show that his claim is both right and wrong, in that the number of terror arrests in Britain has increased in the past year, but they are still a tiny proportion of the 5.2million crimes revealed in yesterday’s report.
Home Office data showing the number of people detained over suspected terrorism increased to 379 last year – the highest since records began.
But murders and attempted murders attributed to terrorism represent well under one per cent of the crimes cited in yesterday’s report, nearly all of which have no link to extremism.
Donald Trump caused uproar with this tweet, linking terrorism to the increase in British crime
The president appeared to suggest the increase in overall crime was due to Islamic extremism
The sweep of raids following attacks in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge, coupled with the rising number of threats being thwarted, led to a two thirds increase in suspected extremists being detained.
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has said that, on top of the five high-profile terror attacks which have taken place in Britain, this year, police have foiled six further attacks in the last few months.
The report into recorded crime released by the Office for National Statistics yesterday mentioned how terrorism has increased the stats relating to some crime.
It stated: ‘There was a substantial increase of 59% in the number of attempted murder offences to 426 offences in the latest year. This rise is due largely to the London and Manchester terror attacks, where the police recorded 294 attempted murder offences.’
The report also states: ‘Of the 664 homicides recorded in the year ending June 2017, there were 35 relating to the London and Manchester terror attacks.’
Police made scores of arrests after the Manchester and London attacks, with the number of terror suspects detained last year rising to more than 370
Scotland Yard has beefed up its anti-terror force, but the vast majority of crime in the UK, well under 1%, is linked to terrorism
Keith Hunter, of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, also mentioned growing threat from terrorism when discussing the figures.
He said: ‘There are undoubtedly key pressures on police time coming from rising overall crime levels, more complex crimes being committed, a growing terrorist threat and, more than ever, the police being called on as a last resort when other agencies lack their own capacity.’
His comments suggest some increase in non-terrorism crime could be down to police having to spend more of their time monitoring extremists or handling the fall-out of attacks.
However, the increases reported in those crimes are a tiny proportion of the overall crime in England and Wales, which increased by 13 per cent.
Stats showed the overall level of recording crime increasing by 13% to 5.2million offences
The 294 attempted murders and 35 homicides related to terror attacks are small compared to the 235,000 burglaries, 200,000 harassment cases and 370,000 cases of shoplifting which have no link to terrorism at all.
The 35 murders by terrorists are also only 5% of the overall 664 killings in England and Wales last year.
Many of the offences which showed the largest increases, sexual grooming (up 64%), causing fear or distress (up 59%) and stalking (up 45%) are nothing to do with Islamic extremism.
The ONS report stated: ‘The 13% increase in police recorded crime from previous year, reflects a range of factors including continuing improvements to crime recording and genuine increases in some crime categories, especially those that are well-recorded.’