SIR – Our Conservative MP for Shipley, Philip Davies (pictured), appeared on the BBC Politics Show claiming that the UK sends few criminals to prison and that if any other country sent fewer criminals to prison he’d “like to hear it”.

Thankfully he can now “hear it” as his claims were checked by FullFact.org and found unsurprisingly wanting.

Using the 2005 Civitas data, Davies quotes that numerous countries sent fewer criminals to prison than the UK at that time. However, there is more recent data available from 2008 that Davies neglects to use, perhaps because it comes from the EU.

This shows that the UK is roughly average across the EU when it comes to the number of criminals sent to prison, above Germany and others. You can view the figures at fullfact.org.

Listening to Davies you’d think crime was at an all-time high, but the fact is that Labour was the first Government in the post-war era to leave office with crime lower than when it came to power. Once again, Davies has proven adept at chasing headlines but found wanting when it comes to the content.

Perhaps his slogan should be changed to ‘All headlines, no content’?

Alex Ross, Shipley Labour Party, West End Terrace, Shipley