Conservative Leader Indicates Additional Agreement Withdrawals Could Boost Removals

A upcoming Tory government could be open to dismantling additional international agreements as a means to deport people from the UK, as stated by a leading party figure speaking at the start of a gathering focused almost entirely on migration policy.

Plan to Leave Rights Convention

Delivering the first of a pair of speeches to the gathering in Manchester, the Tory leader officially set out her plan for the UK to quit the ECHR treaty on human rights as one element of a broader bonfire of protections.

These steps involve a halt to legal aid for foreign nationals and the ability to take migration decisions to tribunals or legal challenge.

Leaving the ECHR “is a necessary step, but not enough on its own to achieve our goals,” the leader said. “If there are other agreements and regulations we need to revise or revisit, then we shall do so.”

Potential Exit from Refugee Convention

The upcoming Tory administration would be amenable to the possibility of changing or leaving additional global agreements, the leader said, raising the possibility of the UK withdrawing from the UN’s 1951 asylum convention.

This plan to leave the European convention was announced just before the event as part of a sweeping and at times strict package of immigration-control measures.

• A pledge that every refugees coming by unofficial means would be transferred to their own or a third nation within a week.
• A further plan includes the formation of a “removals force”, billed as being modelled on a semi-militarised border body.
• This force would have a mandate to deport 150,000 individuals a annually.

Expanded Removal Measures

In a speech directly after, the prospective home secretary declared that should a foreign national in the UK “expresses bigotry, including prejudice, or backs radicalism or violence,” they would be expelled.

This was not entirely clear whether this would apply only to individuals convicted of a crime for such actions. This Tory party has previously pledged to deport any UK-based non-citizens found guilty of all but the very minor violations.

Judicial Hurdles and Budget Increase

The shadow home secretary set out aspects of the proposed deportation force, saying it would have twice the funding of the existing system.

The unit would be equipped to capitalise of the elimination of numerous entitlements and avenues of challenge for migrants.

“Removing away the judicial barriers, that I have described, and doubling that funding enables we can remove 150,000 individuals a year that have zero lawful right to be here. That is 75% of a 1,000,000 over the duration of the upcoming parliament.”

Northern Ireland Challenges and Platform Review

The speaker noted there would be “specific difficulties in Northern Ireland”, where the European convention is included in the Good Friday agreement.

The leader indicated she would task the prospective Northern Ireland secretary “to examine this matter”.

The address included no policies that had not been previously revealed, with the speaker restating her mantra that the group needed to take lessons from its last electoral loss and use opportunity to develop a cohesive platform.

The leader continued to take a swipe an earlier mini-budget, stating: “We will not redo the financial recklessness of spending commitments without specifying where the funds is to be sourced.”

Focus on Immigration and Security

Much of the addresses were concentrated on immigration, with the shadow home secretary in especial using large sections of his speech to detail a series of illegal offences committed by refugees.

“It is sick. The party must do everything it requires to stop this chaos,” he declared.

This speaker took a equally firm stance in parts, asserting the UK had “allowed the radical religious beliefs” and that the country “must not import and accept values hostile to our own”.