October 7 2026 - 1:15pm
One of the most vexed culture-war debates in Britain in recent years has been the issue of migrant men allegedly posing a higher risk of committing sex crimes. This is not least because statistics around the cultural and national backgrounds of male sex offenders are not available in the public domain in Britain. One could point to the research of forensic psychiatrist Frank Urbaniok, who has found that migrant men are “overrepresented” as sex criminals compared to the rest of the male population in European countries including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. However, while the convenient withholding of facts has enabled the Labour government to stick its head in the sand about this particularly uncomfortable side effect of multiculturalism, the real aversion has always been ideological.
A shift appears to be happening, though. In an interview for the Leading podcast this week, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood claimed that of the women seeking refuge in Britain aboard small boats and dinghies, almost all have been raped during the crossing. She elaborated: “We’re not in control of this border. The sifting of the people that end up in the north of France and are about to get on a dinghy is done by criminal gangs who are also, by the way, people traffickers.”
This admission is highly significant, insofar as it overtly acknowledges that not all migrant men on these small boats are wholesome, family-oriented refugees simply in search of a better life. Men raised in countries in which women’s rights and bodily autonomy are treated with contempt will be more disposed to misogyny — and, by extension, violence — towards women and girls. In a crowded field, this one of the most egregious things modern progressives, especially the self-styled feminist variety, pretend not to understand. A Labour cabinet member breaking the ice on this is especially noteworthy.
Optimists may see this as a long overdue sign that Labour is waking up to public feeling. That’s not to mention the the frank reality of the major safeguarding failings within Britain’s asylum system. The fact that migrant women bear the brunt of rape and assault has wobbled intersectional feminism’s hierarchy of empathy enough that the problem may finally be addressed.
But if — and it’s a big if — this disclosure by Mahmood indicates a shift, it would still be wise to exercise caution. Her rhetoric throughout the remainder of the new interview points to a politician who continues to prioritize appeasing the radical Leftists in her party rather than taking sensible action in line with most voters’ thinking. While she derides human traffickers exploiting and abusing migrant women, she reserves her most overt contempt for anti-immigration protestors, who she asserts want her dead. Her aversion to such people — many of whom harbor genuinely racist sensibilities — is understandable, but one senses there is professional pragmatism involved in keeping the focus on the far-Right as Britain’s biggest internal threat.
Mahmood’s political vacuity was epitomized at Labour’s recent annual conference. When she proposed doubling the time period before migrants can be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain from five to 10 years, she heavily hinted at backtracking on this due to pressure from party colleague Angela Rayner. So as much as it would be reassuring to read the Home Secretary’s tentative engagement with the taboo issue of migrant sex crimes and her occasional floating of sound policy as hopeful, it means nothing until implemented as action. Her impact in government remains destined to be as empty as her rhetoric.
