Overview

• At the Manchester conference, Conservatives published a seven-part Borders plan featuring a new Removals Force modelled on US ICE, repeal of the Human Rights Act, a ban on asylum claims by illegal entrants, abolition of immigration tribunals and most judicial reviews, and ending legal aid for immigration cases.
• The party sets a goal of deporting 150,000 people a year, or 750,000 over a Parliament, and promises removals within a week of arrival, though Badenoch declined to specify destination countries and called that question “irrelevant.”
• Badenoch said any Tory candidate who refuses to back leaving the European Convention on Human Rights will be barred from standing, asserting unanimous shadow cabinet support for the policy.
• A review led by Lord Wolfson concluded quitting the ECHR is the only feasible route to full border control and argued the Good Friday Agreement, the UK–EU trade deal and the Windsor Framework do not legally block withdrawal; Badenoch nonetheless acknowledged Northern Ireland challenges and tasked Alex Burghart to examine them.
• Rights groups and the Law Society warned of weakened protections and treaty risks, Labour and the Liberal Democrats criticised the plan, and Reform UK derided Tory intentions after saying it would also leave the ECHR.