Badenoch says Tories could quit more treaties to increase deportations

"Making the first of two addresses to the gathering in Manchester, the Tory leader formally set out her proposal for the UK to quit the European convention on human rights (ECHR) as part of a wider bonfire of protections including an end to legal aid for migrants and the right to take migration decisions to tribunals or judicial review. A future Conservative government would be open to the possibility of amending or quitting other international agreements, she said, opening the possibility of the UK leaving the UN's 1951 refugee convention."

"Leaving the ECHR is a necessary step, but not enough on its own to achieve our goals, Badenoch said. If there are other treaties and laws we need to revise or revisit, then we will do so. And we will do so in the same calm and responsible way, working out the detail before we rush to announce. The plan to leave the ECHR was announced just before the conference as part of a radical and sometimes draconian package of anti-migration measures including a pledge that all asylum seekers arriving by unofficial means would be sent to their own or a third country within a week."

"Another plan involves the formation of a removals force, billed as being modelled on Donald Trump's semi-militarised Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency, with a remit to deport 150,000 people a year. In a speech directly after Badenoch, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said that if a foreign national in the UK expresses racial hatred, including antisemitism, or supports extremism or terrorism, they would be deported. It was not immediately clear if this would apply only to people convicted of a crime for such actions."

The proposal would have the UK quit the European Convention on Human Rights and consider amending or leaving other international agreements, including the 1951 refugee convention. Proposed measures include ending legal aid for migrants and removing the right to take migration decisions to tribunals or judicial review. Asylum seekers arriving by unofficial means would be sent to their own or a third country within a week. Plans include creating a removals force modelled on US ICE to deport 150,000 people a year. Proposals also include deporting foreign nationals who express racial hatred or support extremism, with applicability to convictions unclear.

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