Fact Check: Are foreigners more likely than Britons to commit sexual offences? (August 2025)
🗣️ The Claim
In early August 2025, Nigel Farage suggested that foreign nationals in the UK are disproportionately responsible for sexual offences, echoing a narrative often used by far-right politicians across Europe.
đź“Ť The Context
- Farage made the claim during media discussions around immigration and asylum policy.
- The argument has been used to frame immigration as a public safety issue.
- Similar claims have appeared in debates on asylum seekers and small boat crossings.
🔎 The Facts
- Official Statistics
- ONS crime data does not show foreign nationals committing sexual offences at a higher rate than UK nationals.
- In fact, nationality is not a strong predictor in sexual offence statistics; most offences are committed by UK citizens.
- Migration Observatory Findings
- Research from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory has consistently shown no evidence that migrants commit more crime than natives.
- Where differences appear, they are often explained by socioeconomic factors rather than nationality.
- Sky News Fact-Check (August 2025)
- Sky reviewed Ministry of Justice and ONS data and concluded that there is no statistical evidence to support Farage’s claim.
- Data gaps exist, but available figures show UK nationals make up the vast majority of sexual offence convictions.
- Expert Commentary
- Criminologists caution that framing immigration in terms of sexual crime plays into xenophobic tropes, rather than being grounded in evidence.
- Misuse of partial statistics (such as foreign nationals in prison) ignores broader context like sentencing and custodial categories.
âś… Verdict: False
There is no evidence that foreigners are more likely than Britons to commit sexual offences. Official data shows the opposite: most sexual offences are committed by UK nationals. Farage’s claim reflects a recurring political narrative, not reality.