BLACK people are three times more likely to have a Taser — or the threat of one — used against them by police officers, according to Home Office data uncovered yesterday.

English and Welsh police aimed or fired the stun gun in 38,135 cases over the past five years.

In at least 4,580 (more than 12 per cent) of those incidents, black people were subjected to the threat or use of 50,000-volt electric shocks.

Labour MP and former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said that police need to “explain the disproportionality” of use — as only 4 per cent of the population is black.

The Streatham MP called on Tory Home Secretary Theresa May to launch an “immediate investigation” into the “extremely concerning” situation that only came to light after the BBC sent a freedom of information request to the government.

Mr Umunna added: “[The Home Office] releases Taser data on an annual basis, but it seems to have deliberately withheld details regarding the ethnicity, age and gender of those involved in these incidents.”

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts co-chair Lee Jasper said Ms May should extend her concern over the disproportionate use of stop and search against black people to other policing matters.

He pointed to statistics from drugs law experts Release showing that black people used less drugs than white people but were six times more likely to be apprehended and almost twice as likely to be charged for possession.

In addition, at least 158 Taser cases last year involved someone under the age of 16.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu insisted: “In 80 per cent of situations it’s never even used and it stops the violence there and then.”