The Conservative Party in the UK have pledged to create a new “Removals Force”, currently known as Home Office’s immigration unit, to detain and remove 150,000 illegal immigrants a year as part of a bigger plan to tackle illegal immigration which is modelled on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Conservative Party Leader, Kemi Badenoch, announced the “Removals Force” will be given £1.6 billion and “sweeping new powers” including the use of facial recognition without warning to spot illegal immigrants, and are expected to integrate closely with the police.
Badenoch has made her stance on illegal immigration clear. When questioned by BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg about where she was planning on sending immigrants she stated that “they will go back to where they should do or another country, but they should not be here”. She also stated previously that “if elected, I will develop the fullest and most detailed plan to control immigration that any political party has ever proposed”, which she has since followed through with.
In addition to Badenoch’s “Removals Force”, she set up a review committee in June 2025 to examine whether the UK should withdraw from a multitude of agreements, including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and leave the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. According to Lord Wolfson, Shadow Attorney General, five key conservative policy proposals had “significant constraints” due to the ECHR.
The policies impacted include the deportation of foreign criminals and illegal immigrants, the protection of military veterans from legal action, the prioritisation of British citizens in access to public services, the ensuring of prison sentences that reflect parliamentary intent, and the prevention of courts using climate change laws to block planning reforms.
Expert of EU Law, Catherine Barnard, noted that a withdrawal would isolate the UK alongside Russia and risk breaching both the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and the UK-EU trade deal. However, Lord Wolfson claims that it would not breach the GFA.
The Conservative Party and Badenoch seem to have their own hateful ideology, even with the genocide in Gaza as Badenoch stated at the 2025 Conservative Party conference that pro-Palestine marches were “carnivals of hatred”.
It seems to be a step in the wrong direction, and coming from a place of disdain rather than a place of compassion. There is no concern for those who have entered the UK illegally due to unsafe living conditions and a plethora of dire situations.
