Overview

• The Conservative Party says it will take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if it wins the next election, arguing treaty-based legal challenges have blocked deportations.
• The Borders Plan would create a £1.6bn Removals Force modelled on ICE to deport about 150,000 people a year, with powers including facial recognition use and closer integration with police checks.
• Proposals would tighten asylum by limiting refugee status to cases of direct state persecution, abolishing immigration tribunals, moving decisions into the Home Office, restricting appeals and removing legal aid for most cases.
• Lord Wolfson’s months-long review concludes withdrawal is legally and practically possible, while cautioning it is not a panacea and acknowledging political and diplomatic complications.
• Rights groups, the Law Society and opposition parties warn the approach would erode protections and could imperil arrangements such as the Good Friday Agreement, as Conservatives counter pressure from Reform UK.