Britain's Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, formerly United Kingdom secretary of state for business and trade.
Britain’s opposition Conservative Party has pledged to deport 150,000 illegal migrants a year with new Trump-style immigration squads.
Party leader Kemi Badenoch will use this year’s conference in Manchester to announce how she would reform Britain’s migration system after leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Badenoch has unveiled a seven-point plan to “secure Britain’s borders”, including a commitment to deport small boat arrivals within a week, refuse any asylum claims by illegal migrants, deport all foreign criminals, and remove immigration powers from judges.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Badenoch pledged to stop “silly arguments” about human rights from preventing the government from doing the “right thing”.
She said she was “ashamed” Britain’s immigration system had allowed the emergence of grooming gangs, with “foreigners raping our little girls”.
At this year’s Tory conference, members will discuss how to rescue the party from its dire poll ratings and the threat of Reform UK.
Several members of Badenoch’s shadow cabinet have told the Telegraph they believe she has six months to save her leadership before MPs look for an alternative to beat Nigel Farage.
Badenoch’s plan for a “removals force” is modelled on United States President Donald Trump’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, which claims to have deported 400,000 people since he took office.
Her target would increase the number of deported failed asylum seekers from 9800 in the most recent calendar year to 150,000.
This year, 25,000 people had crossed the Channel in small boats by the end of July – the earliest in a year that figure has ever been reached.
The Tory leader said she “wouldn’t be surprised” if Trump “loved” her migration plan but said she was more interested in the views of people in the UK.
The removals force would have an initial budget of £1.6 billion, drawn from an existing agency and savings from closing migrant hotels, and would deploy officers to catch illegal migrants within days of their arrival in Britain.
The Conservatives would also change the law to give the body heightened investigative powers, such as the use of automatic facial recognition technology on the public, without notice.
Badenoch has pledged to deport all foreign criminals other than those convicted of minor traffic offences and would block their right to appeal with new Home Office powers to authorise or reject deportations.
Leaving the ECHR would also allow Britain to restrict the criteria for seeking asylum to those fleeing persecution from their government, rather than war or famine, in what the Tories say is a return to the “original principles” of international human rights law.
A 20-page policy document released by the party also included a plan to strike further returns deals by threatening countries that refuse to accept their criminals with visa sanctions.
Badenoch said she would repeal the Human Rights Act, amend modern slavery laws and restrict the right of judges to allow foreign nationals to remain in the UK for expensive and lengthy appeals.
It comes as Andrew Griffith, the shadow Business Secretary, announced separate plans for a Trump-style diplomatic drive if the Conservatives win the next election, with top business people deployed as ambassadors to drum up foreign investment.
It will be seen by MPs as the beginning of a fight-back against Reform, which has increasingly siphoned off the Conservative vote since Badenoch took office last November.
Farage’s party is polling 14 points ahead of the Tories and 10 points ahead of Labour, according to a poll of polls. At the weekend the Reform leader announced that Keith Prince, a sitting Conservative on the London Assembly, had defected to his party.
Another survey showed that the Conservatives are trusted the least of the three largest parties to “stop the boats”. Badenoch has previously said her party “got it wrong” on migration while in office.
Farage has pledged to abolish long-term settlement for migrants entirely, while Sir Keir Starmer has said he will make it harder for asylum seekers to bring their dependants in an attempt to make the UK less attractive.
Over the next four days, the Tories will unleash a “blitz” of policies, including on the economy, business, migration and energy sector.
Senior Conservatives said the conference was a “make-or-break” moment, ahead of local elections in May that could see Reform supplant the Tories on more councils, and in Scotland and Wales.
One member of the shadow cabinet told the Telegraph that Badenoch’s performance at the conference and after November’s Budget would be “fundamental to her future of her being the leader” and warned the next six months were “existential for the party”.
A second member of her team said she had “promised energy and renewal” but had “delivered neither” and called for more “momentum” from her leadership.
Some MPs have already earmarked Robert Jenrick, her shadow justice secretary, as a possible replacement. Sources close to Jenrick denied reports that he was collecting letters of no confidence in her leadership from allies.
However, other shadow cabinet members said the Tories should resist “nonsense with leadership challenges”, adding that while Badenoch had made a “mistake” by failing to predict the collapse of Labour’s popularity, she had “good policies” that could be popular with the public.
In her interview, Badenoch called on her MPs to “hold your nerve” and wait for her “renewal” strategy to bring back disaffected voters.
“We are the only party that can deliver a stronger economy and stronger borders,” she said. “If we don’t hold our nerve, we are giving our country up. That is not right.”
Acknowledging the frustration from some quarters of the party, she added: “I would have loved to have performed miracles. I’m an engineer, not a miracle performer. This is the way it goes.”
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