The Guardian view on Conservative immigration policy: the threat of mass expulsions is abhorrent | Editorial

"For all its deficiencies, Sir Keir's deal with France recognises two facts that his Tory and Reform UK opponents cannot accept. First, engagement with EU states is a sine qua non of functional migration policy. Second, without some legal mechanism for accepting refugees, desperate people will always gamble on the illegal ways. Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage are too committed to vilification casting France as the enemy and refugees as criminals"

"They refuse to acknowledge the humanity of people who put their lives at risk to enter Britain illegally. Worse, they have policies to undermine the position of millions of people who have settled in the country by legal means. The target for both Reform UK and the Conservatives is indefinite leave to remain (ILR) residency status that confers rights and access to state services short of the privileges of citizenship."

"Mr Farage proposes scrapping ILR and imposing tougher conditions on those currently on track to qualify. The Tory policy is much more extreme, retroactively revoking ILR from anyone who has claimed any form of state benefit or fallen below an annual income threshold of 38,700. This would strip residency rights from hundreds of thousands, quite possibly millions, of people, thereby making them liable to be deported."

Too early to declare Sir Keir Starmer's one in, one out migration deal with France a failure, but the government cannot claim it is working as intended. One deportee returned to the UK by small boat, and Home Office figures show 36,886 crossings this year, exceeding 2024. Opposition parties accuse Labour of failing to control migration; ministers cite a Conservative legacy of mismanagement. The deal accepts that engagement with EU states is essential and that lawful refugee routes are required to deter dangerous illegal crossings. Farage and Badenoch vilify France and refugees and propose revoking or restricting indefinite leave to remain, risking the loss of residency for hundreds of thousands.

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