Yvette Cooper is facing demands for clarity over the information that police forces are permitted to release to the public after claims of a “cover-up” by the authorities over the immigration status of men accused of raping a child.
The Warwickshire police and crime commissioner, Philip Seccombe, called for fresh national guidance after police were accused by Reform UK of failing to confirm that two Afghan men being prosecuted for the alleged attack on a 12-year-old girl were asylum seekers.
There is increasing pressure on prosecutors and the police to release details about the ethnicity and immigration status of people facing a criminal charge.
Cooper, the home secretary, said on Tuesday that the guidance should change to permit police to release the ethnicity or immigration status of criminal suspects but added that she was waiting for a review to be concluded by the Law Commission.
Seccombe said: “Like all forces, Warwickshire police finds itself in a difficult position of trying to carefully balance the legal safeguards which protect the integrity of the judicial process, while maintaining public order and simultaneously ensuring that public confidence is maintained through transparency and honesty.
“Currently police forces are in an invidious position when deciding what can and should be disclosed in sensitive cases, given that the national guidance is silent on both the ethnicity and immigration status of suspects.
“It is very easy to criticise and suggest that the balance of disclosure hasn’t been correct, but it is much harder to take these decisions on the ground.”
The alleged rape, said to have happened on 22 July, has become the centre of a political storm after the Reform leader, Nigel Farage, on Monday amplified claims of a police cover-up.
On Tuesday the leader of Reform-led Warwickshire county council said police were refusing to confirm details of the two suspects charged after the alleged attack in Nuneaton.
George Finch, the youngest council leader in England, alleged within days that Ahmad Mulakhil and Mohammad Kabir – the two men charged in the case – were asylum seekers, but police forces do not routinely release the immigration status of suspects.
In a letter to Cooper, Finch claimed the police risked “disorder breaking out on the streets” of the county.
Cooper said on Tuesday that “we do want to see greater transparency” from police forces and she wanted national guidance to change in relation to the release of information about suspects.
Mulakhil has been charged with two counts of rape, while Kabir has been charged with kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting the rape of a girl aged under 13. Both men are in custody and due to appear at Warwick crown court on 26 August.
Warwickshire county council’s chief executive briefed Finch confidentially about the immigration status of the two men, according to a letter by the force’s chief constable, Alex Franklin-Smith.
Franklin-Smith said he confirmed to Finch last Thursday that this information was accurate but that “we wouldn’t be releasing immigration status at point of charge as we follow national guidance”.
The police chief said he had asked the Home Office to confirm the full immigration status of the two men, given that Finch had released some details publicly.
He added: “I am confident that Warwickshire police has treated this investigation seriously from the outset, working tirelessly to identify, locate, arrest and charge those suspected of being responsible for this awful crime as quickly as possible.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “As the home secretary said yesterday, it has been widely reported that this case involves two Afghan individuals who are in the asylum system, some of which information has already been confirmed in open court.
“The home secretary has made clear that there is a strong public interest in maximum transparency wherever that is possible.
“That is why the Home Office and College of Policing are working together to strengthen and clarify the guidance around how and when information is released.”
