United Kingdom Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has launched a sweeping new immigration strategy centered on the creation of a “Removals Force” modelled after the United States’ ICE agency.
The proposed unit aims to remove 150,000 people each year who are residing in the UK without legal status, Badenoch told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Sunday.
Under the plan, the removals force would replace the existing Home Office Immigration Enforcement department.
A £1.6 billion budget would back it, double its predecessor’s funding, and granted expanded powers, including the use of facial recognition without prior warning to identify and detain individuals.
Badenoch also laid out wider changes to the UK’s asylum and human rights frameworks: scrapping immigration tribunals, restricting appeals, and cutting legal aid for immigration cases.
She stopped short of clarifying exactly where deportees would be sent, dismissing the question of destination as “irrelevant.”
Opponents have already pushed back. Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s Home Secretary, called the plan “unrealistic” and noted that past Conservative administrations under-delivered on deportation targets.
Observers warn that such a large numerical removal target may be unfeasible in practice and could face legal, logistical, and ethical constraints.
The proposals fit with Badenoch’s broader ambition to repeal the Human Rights Act, exit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and narrow eligibility for asylum to only those being persecuted by states.
Advocates of the reforms frame them as restoring sovereign border control and protecting national interests, while critics warn of the human cost and loss of due process.
As the conference continues, the new immigration agenda sets the stage for fierce debate — and positions immigration as a flagship issue for the Conservatives going into the next general election.
