Conservatives have been accused of xenophobia after a minister suggested that continued free movement would bring thousands of European criminals to the UK.

A group representing EU nationals said Brandon Lewis’s claim was contradicted by the government’s own expert advisers, who found that European migration has no impact on offending and migrants can even reduce the overall crime rate because they are more law-abiding than Britons.

A spokesman for the 3Million group said Mr Lewis’s comments came “straight from the populist playbook” and were part of a wider effort to portray EU nationals as a drain on the UK.

The security minister told the Sun on Sunday that Labour’s immigration policies would mean hundreds of thousands more immigrants to the UK over the next 10 years, among whom there could be expected to be around 15,000 offenders.

“Jeremy Corbyn’s plans would mean continued free movement for European criminals and foreign gangs,” he said. “This is dangerous and British taxpayers would foot the bill.”

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But the Migration Advisory Committee’s 2018 report found that “migration does not impact crime and there is no evidence to suggest that migrants are linked to any increases in crime in England and Wales”

The report even found that areas with high levels of immigration from the eight central and Eastern European countries which joined the EU in 2004 experienced “slightly lower levels of property crime” than those with fewer migrants.

“Crimes are much more likely to be committed by individuals who are young, with low education and poor economic opportunities,” the MAC report found.

“Since EU8 migrants have both higher employment rates and higher average levels of educational attainment than UK-born, it is not surprising that they reduce the overall crime rate.”

Axel Antoni of the 3Million told The Independent: “This is really nasty politics, trying to scare the public into fearing EU nationals when there are 3.5 million of us here and the vast majority are law-abiding and less likely to be criminal than average.

“It’s the politics of division. We have seen hate crimes rising because of this kind of politics.”

Responding to Mr Lewis’s warning, Mr Antoni said: There is no evidence for this whatsoever and they know it because they commissioned the report which quite clearly states that there is no impact on crime from EU migration.

“In 2016, people could plead ignorance when they made claims like this. But now the government has the evidence of its own committee’s report, so it is straightforward scare-mongering.

“It is definitely xenophobic, taking 95 per cent of the country and using scare tactics to try to divide them from the other 5 per cent.”

Describing the comments as “straight from the populist playbook”, he said: “They are saying to the 95 per cent that we didn’t have control, so these people are here and they are criminals, they are leaching the benefit system and they are a drain on the NHS. It is incredibly hurtful to those of us who are already in the UK.

“Obviously, EU citizens aren’t angels and any group of people will have some criminals in it.

But if you look at the prison population, EU citizens are far less likely to receive a custodial sentence than the average.”

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “While we remain in the EU we have to have an open borders policy that allows criminals to get into the country which puts British people’s safety at risk.