A Tory MPs has risked sparking fury by suggesting police should stop and search more ethnic minorities because they 'commit more crime'.

Philip Davies said black people are more likely to be murderers - and be murdered themselves - on Britain's streets.

And he hit out at the decision to crackdown on the use of stop and search, which was taken by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary.

His comments comes as 'Wild West Britain' finds itself in the grip of a violent crime wave - with 70 people killed in London alone so far this year.

Speaking in a parliamentary debate, he said: 'When it comes to the most serious offence of all—murder—it ​is clear that black people, and in particular black males, are far more likely to be victims.

'They are also more likely to be murderers.'

Philip Davies (pictured in the parliamentary debate) said black people are more likely to be murderers - and be murdered themselves - on Britain's streets.

He added: 'It is also a fact that black people are more likely to use a knife or a sharp instrument to kill.

'According to the 2016 statistics on race and the criminal justice system, for victims from the black ethnic group sharp instruments accounted for nearly two thirds of homicides, but they accounted for only one third of white homicides.'

He said official figures from the criminal justice system show that from 2013 to 2016 four times more black people - at 32 victims per million people - were killed compared to white people at 8 victims per mission people.

Mr Davies, MP for Shipley, said: 'Why are more black people being stopped?

'If the uncomfortable truth is that they commit more of the crimes for which they are stopped, we need to accept that and deal with it. If that is not the case, we need the evidence to show what the issue is.

'The Prime Minister said that institutions should explain or change. I say that this evidence needs an explanation, and it may well be that it should result in a change to the recent policy on stop-and-search, and that stop-and-search should be used more.'

His remarks are likely to spark anger among some who say that police stop and search powers have unfairly targeted ethnic minorties.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured in Downing Street last week) is under mounting pressure to crack down on the violent crime wave gripping Britain

As Home Secretary, Mrs May announced a crackdown on the use of the powers, which she warned had bred resentment between officers and the communities they were sent to police.

But the move has proved hugely controversial after a surge of violent crimes in the years that followed.

There have been 70 killings in London this year - many of them stabbings - and at one point the capital's murder rate was higher that New York's for the first time.

In February more than 250 knives and swords were seized across London in just one week where 283 people, many of them teenagers, were arrested for carrying them.

Moped-related attacks have 22,000 crimes last year – an average of 60 every day - which has led to MPs claiming London is like the 'Wild West' because gangs appear fearless about being caught.

It comes as shocking images of a masked gunman shooting his victim at point-blank range at dawn on a quiet residential street have today emerged.

Seconds later the gunman had fled the scene in suburban Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in a van.

Police believe the shooting was a 'targeted attack' and yesterday released shocking images from a resident's CCTV camera as they hunted the gunman.