Conservatives announce their BORDERS plan

Today [Sunday 5^th October 2025] the Conservative Party is announcing its new BORDERS Plan, a comprehensive and far-reaching set of policies designed to take the radical action necessary to secure our borders.   

For too long, successive governments have failed on immigration. Kemi Badenoch has been clear that the Conservative Party got it wrong in the past and has admitted it made mistakes.   

However, Keir Starmer – who came into power promising to ‘smash the gangs' – has since catastrophically let down the country, with 2025 being the worst year on record for small boat crossings. And in response all the Labour Government has to offer is more gimmicks and soundbites.   

That is why the Conservatives have done the hard work in opposition to develop a serious and credible plan to tackle illegal immigration. 

The BORDERS Plan is underpinned by 7 key policies:

1. Ban asylum claims for illegal entrants 
2. Out of the ECHR and ECAT, and repeal HRA 
3. Removals Force established to remove 150,000 per year 
4. Deport all new illegal arrivals within a week, and all foreign criminals 
5. End the Immigration Tribunal, Judicial Review and legal aid for immigration cases 
6. Returns agreements backed by visa sanctions 
7. Support our allies abroad to prevent illegal entry to Europe 
    

Each of these measures delivers tough new reforms to our legal system and border security. 

By banning asylum and other protection claims for illegal entrants, a clear signal will be sent – no one who has entered illegally can ever get asylum or any other protection in this country. Claims will simply never be heard.  

This will serve as a serious deterrent effect, as Australia demonstrated in 2013 and as the United States is demonstrating now. 

Withdrawing from the ECHR, fully repealing the Human Rights Act and exiting the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT) will end the legal blocks that allow illegal immigrants, and in some cases foreign criminals, to stay in the UK based on flimsy claims.  

Domestic modern slavery laws will be amended so modern slavery claims no longer prevent removal, while still protecting genuine victims and criminalising trafficking.  

The Conservatives will also amend domestic legislation substantially, to raise the threshold for claims covered by the Refugee Convention. Parliament will interpret the Convention, not the courts.  

A new Removals Force, modelled on the success of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) will be established. 

This new Force will replace the existing Home Office Immigration Enforcement and given double the funding – increased from £820 million a year to £1.6 billion.  

Its mandate will be relentlessly to focus on increasing the number of removals from 34,000 to 150,000 a year, representing at least 750,000 removals across a parliament. 

This would be funded by the closure of asylum hotels and tackling the wider costs of our out-of-control asylum system – which amounts to a staggering £4.76 billion each year. 

This will allow for the removal of all new illegal arrivals within a week and all foreign criminals. Those found to already be in the UK illegally or whose visas have expired will also be removed.

The next Conservative Government will also end the Immigration Tribunal system, most judicial review and legal aid in immigration cases to overhaul the system. This will return all immigration decisions to the Home Office – including decisions concerning asylum, accommodation, visas, age assessment and removals/deportations. Accountability will return to the Home Secretary, and to Parliament.  

Legal firms who have defrauded the country by coaching applicants on what to say for successful challenges will be stopped in their tracks by this change. The taxpayer will no longer be forced to stump up for an industry abusing our generosity. 

Further returns agreements backed by visa sanctions will be concluded. Under the next Conservative Government, the UK would limit visa rights and withdraw aid for countries that will not agree to take back their own nationals – as the US has successfully done with countries in Latin America. 

Finally, we would support our allies abroad to prevent illegal entry to Europe. Under the last Conservative Government, the Royal Navy worked with European and other allies to disrupt smuggling operations in the Mediterranean and training, equipment and funding for border guards in countries along the Wester Balkan route.  

That is why we will continue to work with allies to ensure that migration is not used as a weapon by Russia, diplomatic and aid resources are deployed to support Europe's borders, and to address pull factors that attract illegal immigrants to the UK.  

Unlike Reform, who have nothing but a hastily cobbled together series of press releases with zero real plan to deliver and whose policies fall apart at the first scrutiny, we have spent our time in opposition forensically analysing every element of our immigration system, and produced a serious and deliverable policy that will make the legal and structural reforms necessary to tackle this crisis. This builds on our existing announcements, including the Deportation Bill. 

Without action, Britain risks becoming an ‘upside down society', where those who have done nothing but enter the country illegally get a free ride on the taxpayers' expense, whilst the British public are put at the back of the queue. This cannot continue, which is why the Conservatives are taking decisive steps. 

The Conservatives will also outline a full plan to tackle legal migration later this year.  

Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, said:

“We must tackle the scourge of illegal immigration into Britain and secure our borders.  

“That is why the Conservatives are setting out a serious and comprehensive new plan to end this crisis. The next Conservative Government will withdraw from the ECHR and ECAT, create a new Removals Force to deport all illegal arrivals, and end the legal merry-go-round of tribunals and appeals. We will deal with those who have already arrived, create a strong deterrent to those who try and come, and tackle swiftly any who still manage to cross the channel. 

“Labour offer failed gimmicks like ‘one thousand in, one out' with France. Reform have nothing but announcements that fall apart on arrival. Our stronger BORDERS plan is serious and credible and backed by a comprehensive legal analysis. That is the difference the next Conservative Government will deliver.” 

Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said: 

“Small boat crossings have hit record levels under Labour, with over 50,000 entrants this year alone. 32,000 people are in asylum hotels across the country. This is simply unsustainable.  

“Labour has no answer to these problems, just gimmicks. Reform has a series of hastily cobbled together press releases with no plan to deliver any of it. The country deserves a party that is serious about tackling this crisis.  

“That is why the Conservatives have developed a real plan – backed by detailed legal analysis and serious structural reforms – to deliver what the British public deserve. This will end illegal migration.”