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The Conservatives have unveiled proposals for widespread deportations, as the party tacks rightward on immigration after losing hundreds of council seats to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK last week.
Kemi Badenoch’s party published a “deportation bill” on Tuesday night that would entail the automatic deportation of anyone who arrives in the UK through an illegal route, such as crossing the Channel on a small boat.
The draft legislation would also hand the government fresh powers to revoke “indefinite leave to remain” status from migrants who start to claim benefits in Britain, or who fall below income thresholds.
Other measures contained in the opposition party bill — which is unlikely to become law, but will be a pillar of the Tories’ offering to the electorate ahead of the next election, include doubling the residency requirement from five to 10 years for migrants applying to remain indefinitely, introducing a binding legal cap on annual migration, and exempting all immigration matters from the need to comply with the Human Rights Act.
The party said it would aim to deport some criminals back to their country of origin, with full details to be set out further down the line for other cases. Badenoch has not committed to reintroducing the last Tory government’s failed Rwanda deportation scheme, on which £700mn of taxpayer money was spent, according to Labour.
Previous Tory governments failed to meet targets on legal migration.
Tougher powers to deport all foreign criminals and removing their right to data protections in law, as well mandatory scientific age testing for asylum seekers, were other provisions in the legislation.
Chris Philp, Tory shadow home secretary, said it was a “bold, pragmatic and deliverable plan to take back control of our borders and restore public confidence in our immigration system”.
He accused the Labour government and Reform of touting “empty slogans and hollow promises” on immigration.
Sir Keir Starmer’s administration has introduced a border security, immigration and asylum bill in parliament, which sets out a plan to treat people smugglers such as terrorists, with longer jail sentences and sanctions including travel bans and restrictions on access to mobile phones and social media.
The legislation, which is currently at report stage in the Commons, would also block asylum seekers convicted of sexual offences from remaining in Britain.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has also signalled that the government could in future bring forward stronger measures preventing human rights grounds being used to block the deportation of migrants.
Farage’s party has, meanwhile, vowed to freeze non-essential immigration, deport foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes, block students from bringing dependants and require five years of residency to claim welfare.
Reform has also said it will resist housing asylum seekers in the council areas it now controls, using tools including judicial reviews, injunctions and planning laws.
About 11,516 migrants have crossed the Channel this year, an increase of 34 per cent on this juncture last year, according to PA news agency analysis of government data.
The Conservatives’ intervention came after ousted Tory councillors and jittery MPs told the Financial Times that the message from the public on the doorstep ahead of election day last Thursday was that they had not forgiven the party for Liz Truss’s disastrous “mini-Budget” and 14 years of “chaos”.
Badenoch branded the results a “bloodbath” after her party shed 674 councillors and lost control of 16 local authorities in the polls. The BBC’s projected national vote share showed the Conservatives in fourth place on just 15 per cent.
One former Tory council chief ousted from power last Thursday, who asked not to be named, said the message from voters ahead of the polls had been “straightforward: Liz Truss, and Boris Johnson’s Partygate. That legacy has never left us.”
The former local government leader urged Badenoch against chasing Reform voters, arguing the Conservative party “doesn’t need to tack right, that’s for sure, but I suspect it probably will”. The Tories also ceded votes to the Liberal Democrats last week.
Several veteran Tory parliamentarians said Badenoch was now under pressure to bring forward a handful of “totemic” policies to illustrate the party’s values.
But they warned against panicked moves to change leader. “If we bin Kemi this side of the general election, nobody will ever vote for us ever again,” said one shadow minister.