Trump causes outrage with claim that 13 per cent rise in UK crime is down to 'radical Islamic terror'

Donald Trump has caused controversy by linking a rise in UK crime to the “spread of radical Islamic terror”.

He wrote on Twitter: “Just out report: ‘United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.’ Not good, we must keep america safe!”

The U.S. president was responding to the latest quarterly figures on crime in England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The data showed a 13 per cent increase in police-recorded offences during the year to June.

It also showed that police had recorded 5.2 million offences during the 12 month period.

The ONS declined to comment on Mr Trump’s tweet.

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ONS statistician John Flatley said in a statement yesterday (Thursday): “Today’s figures suggest that the police are dealing with a growing volume of crime.

“While improvements made by police forces in recording crime are still a factor in the increase, we judge that there have been genuine increases in crime – particularly in some of the low incidence but more harmful categories.

“Police figures cannot provide a good measure of all crime in society, since we know that a large volume of it never comes to their attention.”

He added: “The recent increases in recorded crime need to be seen in the context of the overall decline in crime indicated by the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

“The Survey remains our best guide to long-term trends for crime as experienced by the population in general.”