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A Tory MP risks sparking outrage after he proclaimed black people are "more likely to be murderers" in a bid to ramp up police stop-and-search powers.

Right-winger Philip Davies said he was simply repeating "official facts" when he made the point during a debate in Parliament.

Theresa May famously scaled back stop-and-search powers when Home Secretary amid fears they were being used to unfairly target black youngsters.

The debate has been reignited after new Home Secretary Sajid Javid vowed to give police the stop-and-search powers they need.

But Mr Davies claimed black and ethnic minority crime victims "are suffering not from the overuse of stop-and-search, but from the potential underuse of it."

And he raised the suggestion that more ethnic minorities could be being stopped simply because they "commit more crime".

(Image: BBC)

Mr Davies spoke out during a debate last month in Westminster Hall which has only recently come to wider attention.

After insisting "I am no fan of dividing people up by the colour of their skin", he then went on to list a string of criminal offence rates by race.

Quoting 2016 murder statistics, Mr Davies told MPs: "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."

Mr Davies said white people made up 87% of the population but committed 67% of murders, while black people were 3% of the population but 14.5% of murders.

"It is also a fact that black people are more likely to use a knife or a sharp instrument to kill," he said.

(Image: SWNS)

He added: "It seems to me perfectly obvious that black people are therefore ​more likely to be stopped and searched for drugs than white people, because more people are convicted of those crimes."

Mr Davies told MPs: "That is the background and those are the facts. I am not sure anybody disputes them, because they are the official facts."

He went on to say: "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."

Aghast Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott hit out at the claim.

(Image: PA)

She told Mr Davies: "Are you saying that black, Muslim and Asian people, as a whole, are more likely to be criminal?”

He replied: "The fact is that for certain categories of offence - murder, drug offences and so on - black people and people from ethnic minorities are more likely to be guilty than white people. That is a fact."

Labour MP Naz Shah said "I'm really struggling with this".

She suggested the conviction rate for ethnic minorities was "disproportionate" - exactly because more of them were stopped and searched.

He replied: "I do not accept the premise that police officers in this country are inherently racist."