KEMI Badenoch last night threatened to tear up human rights laws and stop migrants claiming benefits in a bid to tame rampant population growth.
Vowing to “tell the truth on immigration,” she used her first major speech as Tory leader to warn: “This country is not a dormitory or a hotel, it is our home.”
GettyKemi Badenoch has threatened to tear up human rights laws and stop migrants claiming benefits[/caption]
She pledged a “strict” cap on arrivals with visas only doled out to those who “will make a substantial and clear overall contribution”.
And the Opposition chief promised to review Britain’s membership of the European Court of Human Rights and its basis in UK law.
Both policies mark a hardening in her position since she ran for the leadership and were adopted by her rival Robert Jenrick.
Taking aim at Labour and her Conservative governments on immigration, she attacked the “failure of politics over the last thirty years” to “gloss over it or make it a fringe issue”.
She also took aim at Home Office civil servants who would “much rather be working in a charity, helping people with asylum” than controlling borders.
Ms Badenoch said: “Millions want to come here, but we as politicians have to do right by the citizens of this country, before anyone else.
“Our country cannot sustain the numbers we have seen. We are reducing the quality of life for people already here.
“Because immigration is at a pace too fast to maintain public services, and at a rate, where it is next to impossible to integrate those from radically different cultures.”
She vowed to tighten citizenship and settlement criteria so a British part is “earned not an automatic right”.
Her Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp added: “Speaking honestly, I am troubled that over a million people in the UK – over a million – can’t speak English either well or at all.”
Ms Badenoch also warned there would be “zero tolerance for foreign criminals remaining in the UK” if she becomes PM.
She added: “We will look at the access of migrants and any dependents to welfare and public services.”
And a Rwanda-like plan is still the Tory ambition to deter small boat crossings.
Reform leader Nigel Farage gave the speech short shrift, slamming: “The Conservative Party have broken their promises on immigration after the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 manifestos.
“Why on earth would I or anyone else believe them now.”
Labour’s Migration Minister Angela Eagle said: “It’s welcome the Tories finally accept that immigration spiralled out of control on their watch.
“But Kemi Badenoch offers no new ideas or alternatives to her party’s failed policies of the past.”
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