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Conservative leadership candidates lay out immigration plans ahead of conference

29 Sep 2024 5 minute read
Conservative Party leadership contender Kemi Badenoch, appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Photo Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire

Conservative leadership candidates have laid out their plans on immigration ahead of the party conference where they will be vying to replace Rishi Sunak as leader.

The first conference since their election defeat in July begins in Birmingham on Sunday – and Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly will be drumming up support in the contest.

Mr Jenrick said he wanted a cap on immigration “cast in iron”, while Ms Badenoch said that the UK needs “to make sure we uphold our values in this country”.

Immigration has been one of the much-discussed issues in the contest, which is due to declare a winner at the start of November.

Ms Badenoch suggested that cultures where women have fewer rights than men are among those she deems “less valid” than Britain.

‘Ethnic hostilities’

In a piece in the Sunday Telegraph, Ms Badenoch had said on immigration that “we cannot be naive and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid”.

In the same piece she called for an “integration strategy”.

Asked about her remarks on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: she said that it is “not about labelling cultures”.

Ms Badenoch went on: “I think that cultures where women are told that they should not work, I would knock on doors… and you would see somebody at the door who says I can’t speak to you I will get my husband.

“I don’t think that is as equally valid as our culture.”

Mr Jenrick, who has finished top of the MP ballots held so far, has said that he wants Parliament to set a “legally binding” cap on migration, and told Sky News that he wants “to set that in the tens of thousands or lower.”

Mr Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s government in December over the Rwanda plan, said that the reason the policy had not worked was “ because it was not strong enough”.

“I resigned from the cabinet at the turn of the year because unfortunately I was not able to persuade the then prime minister and the cabinet that we needed to strengthen the policy,” he added.

The leadership election was triggered by Rishi Sunak announcing his intention to stand down after the Conservatives secured 121 seats in July, down hundreds on their 2019 election results.

‘Bickering’

Mr Cleverly would not point to one of his party’s former prime ministers as being responsible for their summer election defeat, but said that the public “didn’t like the constant infighting” or the “bickering” among their numbers.

“They didn’t like the fact that as soon as someone became prime minister, there were people within the party who set about removing them as prime minister,” he told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

“We didn’t do that just once or twice. We did it over and over again.

“The British people told us that they wanted us to think about them, not to think about ourselves.”

Mr Tugendhat pointed to his record in the military and other public service to “demonstrate” his “character”.

When asked on the same Sky News programme if the Tories needed another “posh boy leader from a great public school”, he said “I think the Conservative Party needs a leader who can lead, and you can judge me on the decisions my parents made 35 years ago or you can judge me on the decisions I have made for the last 35 years.

“I think that decisions I have made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you are looking at.

“I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Unfavourable

New data from YouGov released on Sunday suggested that nearly seven in 10 Britons hold an unfavourable view of the Conservative Party.

Among the general population, 44% have a “very unfavourable view” of the party, while 25% have a “somewhat unfavourable” view.

This compares to 4% who have a “very favourable” view and 18% who have a “somewhat favourable”.

In addition, 56% of people said that they thought the Conservatives are “only interested in themselves” while 50% described them as “dishonest”.

Interim party chairman Richard Fuller is expected to apologise to the membership for the general election loss when he addresses delegates on Sunday afternoon.

He will tell members that the parliamentary party “needs to learn and has to change”.

Mr Fuller is expected to say: is expected to say: “I am profoundly sorry to you, the members of the Conservative Party.

“To our activists.

“To our current and former councillors, police and crime commissioners and mayors who found their strong local records of service were dominated by negative national headlines.

“To Conservative voters and to the country at large for the consequence: a reckless, ideological socialist government with a huge majority based on a paltry share of the electorate.

“I am deeply sorry.”


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Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
14 days ago

I thought they’d banned c**k Fighting…Tommy Ten Gallon Hat… Mr ‘just a mild sedative, dear’ Cleverless…Jenrick the Nasty and Some of you are not God’s Children, Bad Enough for the job of Hand of God…@DregsAreUs…

Jeff
Jeff
14 days ago

Really is the wrong descriptor there for Badenoch. It should be “working class cos I did a stint in McDonalds Tory” (she really did say that). Tory party proving the old adage insanity is doing the same stupid thing over and over expecting a different result. I expect someone like Grieve would have been a great party leader at this point in time. very forensic, but hey, the Tory party put a liar and a cheat in power over a decent person because brexit. Now we have the fallout of incapable MP’s that should never have left the back benches.… Read more »

Ianto
Ianto
14 days ago

Bit rich for a woman of Nigerian heritage who spent much of her childhood there banging on about drawing up the immigration drawbridge.

Jeff
Jeff
14 days ago

Ah. Badenoch now saying maternity pay is too much, people managed before maternity pay. This is unhinged deregulation, really in Lettuce Lizz territory. What else, people managed before the NHS?

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
14 days ago

Tory leader hopeful Kemi Badenoch , or to give her real name, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch, is another English far-right useful idiot who uses the same hateful divisive rhetoric favoured by Enoch Powell & Edward Mosley to gain acceptance to those white English supremacists in the Conservative & Unionist party who think the world is stained pink and the British/English empire still rules the waves. The irony is. Under both Powell & Mosely’s immigration policy Kemi Badenoch’s economic migrant parents who settled in England due to deteriorating & political issues in Nigeria would have been barred from entering and told… Read more »

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