LONDON — Britain’s main opposition party on Sunday promised that, if it returned to power, it would deport 150,000 immigrants living in the country illegally each year by creating a new removals force with far-reaching powers, modeled on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the United States.
Under the plans, announced by Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, facial recognition technology would be used to track immigrants lacking permanent legal status, the asylum system would be overhauled and Britain would leave an international human rights treaty.
“The fact is, there are too many people in our country who should not be here,” Badenoch told the BBC, adding that “they don’t belong here, they are committing crimes, they are hurting people.”
Badenoch made her pledge on the opening day of an annual conference that is seen as critical for her leadership of the party, which has sunk in opinion polls since she took over in November. Even if she steadies her position, the next general election could be as far off as 2029, making Badenoch unlikely to reach Downing Street any time soon.
The announcement reflects a hardening stance on migration and other issues in Britain, where the political debate has been influenced by Nigel Farage, the leader of a populist anti-immigration party, Reform UK, and by the policies of President Donald Trump.
The center-left Labour government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has responded to the shifting landscape by toughening its stance on immigration and taking a hard line on pro-Palestinian protests.
On Sunday, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, promised to give the police more powers to curb such protests in the wake of an attack on a Manchester synagogue last week in which three people were killed.
Immigration has risen to the top of the political agenda, and Trump made headlines when he visited Britain last month by suggesting that the Labour government could use its military to stop illegal migration. Badenoch, who met Trump during his trip, later praised him on social media for delivering a speech that, she said, reminded people “about all the things that put the ‘Great’ in Great Britain!”
In another echo of Trump’s agenda, Badenoch has also proposed to weaken British moves to combat climate change.
The U.S. administration claims to have carried out 400,000 deportations since January, but ICE’s aggressive tactics have drawn widespread criticism, with American citizens among those arrested.
Badenoch’s pledge to emulate U.S. policies reflects the pressure she faces and her battle for relevance as the Conservative Party fights for its survival and Reform UK grabs the political initiative.
Reform now leads in the opinion polls, with Farage campaigning against the arrival of thousands of migrants, many of whom cross the English Channel on small boats, and promising to remove up to 600,000 immigrants in the country illegally.
Starmer has negotiated an agreement with the French government to return some of those arriving in Britain — but so far only a handful have been sent back to France.
Farage’s popularity has spread alarm throughout the government, but his success presents a more immediate threat to the Conservative Party, whose approval rating languishes at around 16% in opinion polls.
Many analysts believe that Badenoch could face a leadership challenge by next summer if she fails to turn around that polling deficit.
The Tories are in a difficult position because legal immigration into Britain surged under the previous government, to which Badenoch belonged, before her party was swept from power in 2024.
Speaking on Sunday, Badenoch said her removals force would have a budget of 1.6 billion British pounds (about $2.15 billion), to be paid for by cutting the cost of accommodating those claiming refugee status. She said she would also restrict criteria for claiming asylum and abolish the immigration tribunals that hear challenges to failed asylum claims.
Badenoch also promised that a Conservative government would leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which was drafted decades ago to safeguard the rights of people like refugees — a significant shift on a policy that has long divided the Tories. Anyone who opposes leaving the convention will not be allowed to run as a candidate for the Conservatives, she said.
But Badenoch was vague when challenged in her BBC interview about how and where to she would deport 150,000 people a year.
“I’m tired of us asking all of these irrelevant questions about where should they go,” she said. “They will go back to where they should do or another country, but they should not be here.”
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She added, “We cannot have a situation where we cannot deport people, and say, ‘Well, we don’t know where they will go so they can stay here.’”
In a statement, the Labour Party said Badenoch couldn’t “answer the most basic questions about the policies she’s supposedly spent months thinking about,” adding, “It’s the same old Tory Party making the same old mistakes — and the public shouldn’t and won’t forgive them.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
