Badenoch says her migration plan ‘credible’, but won’t say where 150,000 people a year being removed will go – UK politics live | Politics
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- October 5, 2025
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Badenoch says her migration plan ‘credible’, but won’t say where 150,000 people a year being removed will go
Badenoch is now being asked about her removals plan.
Asked where she would deport 150,000 a year to, Badenoch says “not here”.
They do not belong here. They are committing crimes. They are hurting people. We have been trying to deport so many people and have been facing obstacles in the legal system. That’s why we’re leaving the ECHR …
I’m tired of us asking asking all of these irrelevant questions about where should they go? They will go back to where they should do or another country, but they should not be here.
We need to look after the people in our country, but it’s irrelevant to say where would they go. It is not. The most relevant question is, should they be here?
If they should not be here, then they need to be removed.
She suggests, if people focus on these questions, they will not do anything.
The logical conclusion of what you’re saying is that, let’s just give up. It’s just all too difficult. This is how we’ve got to this mess. We cannot have this attitude anymore. That is why we have come up with a credible plan.
Key events
Badenoch claims Tory Rwanda plan was ‘already working’ as deterrent before it was scrapped
Kemi Badenoch claimed that the last government’s plan to sent asylum seekers arriving on small boats to Rwanda was already working as a deterrent before it was abandoned by Labour.
The last government legislated for the Rwanda plan, but it never properly implemented. There were no flights carrying people to Rwanda because they were being deported under its provisions. Only four people went voluntarily, accepting a payment to relocate.
But Badenoch told Laura Kuenssberg this morning:
People need to go back to their countries. They can go to safe third countries if that’s the best thing for them. We had a Rwanda plan, we had a deterrent, that was already working in terms of deterring people before it had even come into place.
Badenoch did not offer any evidence to back up this claim. But she may have been referring to anecdotal evidence from France where, before the election, some asylum seekers told reporters they were postponing travel until after the election because they knew Labour would scrap the Rwanda scheme.
Labour says Badenoch ‘can’t answer basic questions’ about her deportations policy
The Labour party has issued this response to Kemi Badenoch’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg. (See 9.48am.) A Labour spokesperson said:
Kemi Badenoch has been Conservative leader for 338 days now and the British people are still waiting for an apology for the mistakes her party made. Her Conservative party has learned absolutely nothing from 14 years of failure.
Badenoch can’t answer the most basic questions about the policies she’s supposedly spent months thinking about. It’s the same old Tory party making the same old mistakes – and the public shouldn’t and won’t forgive them.
Badenoch claims UK economy will be ‘on fire’ if Reform UK wins election, because Farage will spend ‘loads’ on welfare
Q: Isn’t your borders plan just about signalling to Nigel Farage that, if the Tories are the largest party, you will prop him up?
Badenoch does not accept that.
She claims Farage wants to spend “loads and loads of money on welfare”. She says the economy will be “on fire” if he gets into power.
She says the Tories are the only party with a credible plan.
And Reform UK are not experienced, she says.
Can you imagine what it would be like the people who’ve never been in government before? They’ll be learning all the job. they won’t be able to deliver, and our country will be in a much worse place.
Only the Conservative party can deliver both the competency and the bravery to deal with these tough decisions.
Badenoch claims she can be next PM, saying ‘the polling will change’
Q: In some polls the Tories are doing worse than the Liberal Democrats.
Badenoch says she has said time and time again “we have to hold our nerve” because the Tories will face tough times. It is going to be “very bumpy”. In the past opposition parties have been out of office for 14, 13 or 18 years. She want the Tories to be back in power in four.
Q: Are you saying you can be the next PM with the polling as it is now?
Badenoch replies:
Yes. And the polling will change.
She claims spending time developing “robust policies” will work.
Badenoch says she supports the right to protest. But the government has to stop the “climate of intimidation and fear” that Jews face.
Q: Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, says the PM has blood on his hands because of his decision to recognise the state of Palestine, which he says encouraged extremism. Do you agree?
Badenoch says she would not use that language. But she says the fact that Falter said this showed Keir Starmer had let down the Jewish community.
Badenoch says all Tory election candidates in future will have to back ECHR withdrawal
Q: Robert Jenrick says people who do not back leaving the ECHR should be removed as candidates. Do you agree?
Badenoch says the party will not let people stand as candidates if they do not support ECHR withdrawal. They can be party members and not support the policy, but not election candidates.
UPDATE: Badenoch said:
If you do not agree with leaving the ECHR, then you should not and cannot stand as a Conservative candidate.
Asked whether she will “kick people out” if they rebel on this issue, she said:
They can be in the party, but they cannot stand as MPs.
We have lots of members who have lots of views, we don’t remove people for having slightly different views on policy.
But if you want to be a member of parliament as a Conservative, then you need to understand that leaving the ECHR is a manifesto commitment.
GB News is now showing an interview that Camilla Tominey recorded with Kemi Badenoch earlier this morning.
Tominey starts by saying the conference slogan promises a stronger economy and stronger borders. She says a lot of GB News viewers do not trust the Tories on either.
Q: Your borders policyb does not mention indefinite leave to remain. There are 800,000 people who will be eligible for that soon.
Badenoch says the Tories have already announced a plan to restrict access to indefinite leave to remain.
Q: Boris Johnson said recently he was very proud of the millions of people who entered the UK when he was PM. Are you proud of that?
Badenoch says immigration during that period was too high.
Comments are about to open. But the synagogue attack in Manchester is still subject to an ongoing police investigation and we won’t be allowing comments that refer to it directly BTL. Please abide by this. If readers don’t, comments will get closed.
It is not as if there aren’t plenty of other matters to comment on.
Badenoch dismisses question about whether she will resign if Tories do badly in next May’s elections
Q: You said you wanted the Tories to take time working on policy. But while you have been doing that, the party’s position has got worse.
Badenoch says polls are not elections.
She says Kuenssberg cannot know that, if plans had been announced earlier, they would be doing better.
She says she wants plans that would work.
She claims Labour is doing nothing because it did not have proper plans.
Q: But what if you are the problem?
Badenoch says she was elected to deliver for the party.
Q: If you do badly in the elections next year, will you resign?
Badenoch replies:
I’m the person who was elected to deliver exactly as I’m doing now. We’ve come out with new policies. We have shown that we’ve done the hard work. We’re not going to waste our time in opposition, but the fact of the matter is that we’re only party that can deliver with a stronger economy and stronger borders.
Badenoch claims UK ‘only country in world’ complying with Paris climate change agreement
Badenoch defends her plan to scrap the Climate Change Act, claiming the UK is “the only country in the world” complying with Paris climate change agreement.
Badenoch says her migration plan ‘credible’, but won’t say where 150,000 people a year being removed will go
Badenoch is now being asked about her removals plan.
Asked where she would deport 150,000 a year to, Badenoch says “not here”.
They do not belong here. They are committing crimes. They are hurting people. We have been trying to deport so many people and have been facing obstacles in the legal system. That’s why we’re leaving the ECHR …
I’m tired of us asking asking all of these irrelevant questions about where should they go? They will go back to where they should do or another country, but they should not be here.
We need to look after the people in our country, but it’s irrelevant to say where would they go. It is not. The most relevant question is, should they be here?
If they should not be here, then they need to be removed.
She suggests, if people focus on these questions, they will not do anything.
The logical conclusion of what you’re saying is that, let’s just give up. It’s just all too difficult. This is how we’ve got to this mess. We cannot have this attitude anymore. That is why we have come up with a credible plan.
Badenoch says government too slow in imposing new restrictions on pro-Palestine marches
Laura Kuenssberg opens the interview with a clip of her interviewing Kemi Badenoch near the site of the Manchester synagogue attack.
In the studio, Kuenssberg asks if the Tories will support the plans announced by Shabana Mahmood this morning. Badenoch replies:
Of course, we will support them. But what took them so long?
And the issue, from my perspective, is, why should the public trust a home secretary who not that long ago, was protesting herself.
She claims Mahmood took part in a protest outside a supermarket stocking Israeli goods.
Q: You back freedom of speech. Would you support curbs on the right to protest.
I believe in free speech, but that has to be within the bounds of the law.
If people are using protest to intimidate, if they’re using protest to incite violence, then, no, it’s not protesting. It’s intimidation.
She repeats the claim about Mahmood protesting outside a supermarket.
She seems to be referring to this story from 11 years ago.
Mahmood does not deny report saying spy prosecution dropped after PM’s national security adviser said China not an enemy
Q: The Sunday Times says the prosecution of two people for spying collapsed because the PM’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, attended a meeting where he said the government would not describe China as an enemy of the UK. Is that right?
Mahmood says no government minister was involved in that decision. The decision to drop the trial was entirely a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service.
Q: The report is not about a minister; it is about what the PM’s national security adviser said at a meeing.
Mahmood says:
I’m not aware of any such meeting taking place. It was a decision of the Crown Prosecution services …
I’m very disappointed that that prosecution has not proceeded.
Our understanding is that the evidence that was available to the Crown Prosecution Service when they brought the charges is not materially different to the evidence that they had just before the trial was due to get underway. So I think it’s a question for the prosecution service to answer.
Q: Is China an enemy of the UK?
Mahmood says China is a challenge to the UK.
Here is the Sunday Times story.
Asked about the Tories “bold” plans to remove illegal immigrants (see 8.31am), Mahmood says she would not use that word. She would describe the plans as “totally lacking in any credibility whatsoever”.
Mahmood says she is not proposing pro-Palestine banning marches, but giving police new powers to impose restrictions
Q: Ministers urged people not to attend pro-Palestine marches this weekend. But they did. What more will you do?
Mahmood explains the plans announced this morning. (See 8.15am.)
Q: Are you able to say these plans are explicitly about banning the pro-Palestine protests?
Mahmood says:
This is not about a ban. This is about restrictions and conditions that will enable the police to maybe put further time restrictions [or] move those protests to other places.
The police already have powers on conditions and protests.
What I will make clear in the law is cumulative disruption is in and of itself a reason to place restrictions.
(Organisers would say that being told a march cannot take place where it has previously taken place would feel like a ban.)
Shabana Mahmood is now being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC.
Asked for an update on the investigation into the Manchester synagogue attack, she says four people are currently in custody. She says intense work is taking place to investigate “the planning and the preparation of this attack”. She says the police believe the killer was influenced by extreme Islamist ideology.
Asked why David Lammy was booed when he addressed the Jewish community in Manchester on Friday, Mahmood says she acknowledges their strength of feeling. She says people are justified in asking more from their government to keep them safe.
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