Kemi Badenoch is considering a new cap on visas if the Conservatives return to power and has admitted that previous Tory governments had failed to keep their promises on immigration.
In her first policy intervention as party leader, she also said pulling out of human rights laws “may not be the most radical thing” that her future government will have to do to control the flow of people into the UK.
At a hastily arranged press conference in Westminster, Badenoch said she would design new immigration policies and review “every policy, treaty and part of our legal framework – including the ECHR and the Human Rights Act”.
While stopping short of concrete policy commitments, she said the Conservatives would be mulling over plans for a “strict numerical cap, with visas only for those who will make a substantial and clear overall contribution”.
Standing alongside the new shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, the press conference was held on the eve of the release of Home Office figures which are expected to show a drop in overall migration.
Asked why she would not reveal what the upper limit of her migration cap would be, the Tory leader suggested she wanted a detailed plan in place first.
Successive Tory governments have attempted to limit visas, under David Cameron, Theresa May, and Rishi Sunak in last year’s Illegal Migration Act.
Immigration levels last year were about three times higher than in 2019, when the Tories won the last election with a promise to slash migrant numbers.
In an aside aimed at Keir Starmer’s legal background, Badenoch added: “I’m not somebody who just talks. I’m not a lawyer. I’m an engineer. Before we say things, we have to have a proper plan about how we deliver on the cap.”
More than 300,000 work visas were given in the year ending March 2024, which is more than double the number granted in 2019, according to official statistics.
Badenoch said that the system imposed by previous Tory government had not worked.
“During the last Conservative administration, we promised to bring numbers down. We did not deliver that promise. We ended free movement, but the system that replaced it is not working,” she said.
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She confirmed that the Tories could revive a plan to deport people who arrive by small boats, but stopped short of recommitting to the £370m Rwanda plan.
“We don’t know where we’re going to be in four years’ time. It may be that there have been changes between what the Rwandan government was offering, but we certainly still want a deterrent,” she said.
Responding to the speech, the Home Office minister Angela Eagle said: “It’s welcome the Tories finally accept that immigration spiralled out of control on their watch. But Kemi Badenoch offers no new ideas or alternative to her party’s failed policies of the past.
“The Conservatives wasted hundreds of millions of pounds in taxpayers’ cash on the Rwanda gimmick, and it’s clear they would do it all over again. The Tories have learned nothing.
“Labour is fixing the foundations and getting a grip on the Tories’ immigration chaos. Our new Border Security Command is working with our European partners to smash the criminal gang networks driving small boat crossings, and we’re ramping up the removal of people with no right to be in the UK.”
