Conservatives pledge major crackdown on illegal traveller camps

Today [Tuesday 7^th April 2026], the Conservatives pledge to enact a major crackdown on unauthorised traveller camps, backed by robust legal powers.

Far too many people are forced to tolerate the behaviour of a small minority of travellers who set up encampments in their communities, occupying green spaces, consuming police resources and undermining property rights and the rule of law.

The previous Conservative Government tightened the rules, but the laws passed by the UK Parliament were effectively blocked by the courts from being used. The democratically elected Government's plans to ban travellers from returning to unauthorised sites within a year were thrown out by judges who claimed they would be discriminatory.

The Labour Government and its Attorney General, Lord Hermer, have capitulated to Strasbourg's diktats, ditching the last Government's plans and opting for just a three-month no-return period instead. This is effectively useless, as travellers can simply rotate around a handful of sites in any given area.

The Conservatives are therefore setting out a robust plan to grasp the nettle of the problem, making use of the freedoms we will gain by leaving the ECHR. We will sweep away the loopholes that prevent concrete action and which some travellers use to circumvent the law, ensuring all communities play by the same rules.

The Conservative Party will:

• Back the police with the power to ban travellers from returning to encampments indefinitely, and the power to remove travellers if requested by the landowner - going further than was possible under the previous Government;

• Rebuild hard deterrence by making it an offence to trespass with a vehicle after being directed to leave; and,

• Scrap the ban on removing trespassing travellers if no alternative site is available in the area.

We will support this work as part of our wider plan to hire 10,000 more police officers.

These measures represent the only coherent plan from any party to deal with the problem of illegal sites. The measures will stop the two-tier justice that so often plays out when these sites appear, with law-abiding citizens powerless as travellers go unpunished for crimes that other communities simply wouldn't get away with.

Leaving the ECHR and repealing the Human Rights Act will free the Government to act without the fear of speculative lawfare by activist lawyers and pressure groups.

The Conservatives will bring forward further measures in due course to tackle the related issue of unauthorised traveller development (unauthorised traveller sites on land that travellers own), which is a responsibility of local authorities rather than the police.

The Conservatives are the only party with a plan to fix the two-tier justice system, back our police with the powers and resources they need and ensure that lawbreaking is not tolerated.

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

“For years, towns and villages across Britain have been forced to accept criminality in their communities, but each measure we have used to deal with illegal traveller sites has fallen foul of the ECHR.

“That is why I have serious plans to end the power of foreign courts to frustrate the will of Parliament, and to back our police with the powers and resources they need.

“The Conservatives are the only party who are doing the proper work needed to leave the ECHR, take back our streets, and stand up for the rule of law. We will get Britain working again.”

Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said:

“All too often, police lack the power to act decisively against travellers who break the law.

“By leaving the ECHR and scrapping the Human Rights Act, we will be able to empower our police to do their job more effectively, ensuring equality before the law for all.

“We will support these plans by hiring 10,000 more police officers, ensuring criminality does not go unchecked and lawbreakers to do not go unpunished. Labour want to ignore the problem – we have the plan to fix it.”

Matt Vickers MP, Shadow Minister for Crime and Policing, said:

“Communities deserve swift, decisive action when the law is broken by travellers.

“Our plan will give police the clarity and backing they need to act to ensure that our communities and property rights are protected backed by our wider plan to recruit 10,000 more police officers.

“Only the Conservatives have the team, plan and leader with a backbone to take action to protect our communities and make sure the law is properly enforced.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The previous Conservative Government tightened the rules, but the laws passed by the UK Parliament were effectively blocked by the courts from being used:

• The last Conservative Government passed laws to ensure fair play: In 2022, the Conservative Government introduced legislation to give the police the power to ban travellers from an area for up to 12 months. Our Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts amended the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to give the police stronger powers to (a) remove trespassers on land, (b) seize and forfeit property and, created, (c) a more robust offence to residing on land without consent in or with a vehicle (House of Commons Library, 23 August 2022, link).

• These laws were then struck down due to ECHR: In 2024, the High Courts declared the UK Parliament's democratically-passed law incompatible with Article 14 of the ECHR, because it would disproportionately affect travellers and was found to be discriminatory. Such Europe-derived laws create a two-tier criminal justice system, privileging a particular social group and leaving the police and property owners powerless to deal with people moving onto their land and living there without permission. It is yet another example of how the ECHR has prevented public authorities from acting in the interests of the British people to enforce law and order ([2024] EWHC 1137 (Admin), link; Friends, Families and Travellers press release, "High Court declares parts of Police Act 2022 in breach of European Convention on Human Rights", May 2024, link).

• The Labour Government then watered down the law: The incoming Labour Government resolved not to appeal the High Court decision. And following Lord Hermer's guidance on lavishly following international laws, the Labour Government amended the legislation to water it down. Traveller groups proclaimed: ‘The government's amendment will now water down one of the most draconian forms of anti-Traveller legislation in decades'. The law now allows trespassing travellers to return to their illegally occupied site within 3 months, rather than the previous 12 months; this makes the law effectively worthless, as travellers can rotate around a series of green spaces with impunity (Hansard, 7 May 2025, PQ48442, link; Hansard, 23 May 2025, PQ52625, link; Daily Telegraph, “Lord Hermer gives himself ‘veto' over government policy”, 9 July 2025, link; AGO, Attorney General's Guidance on Legal Risk, November 2024, link; Friends, Families and Travellers press release, “Government amendment to revert anti-Traveller area ban accepted”, 10 March 2026, link).

• A growing problem under Labour: The number of unauthorised traveller sites on other people's land has risen under the Labour Government (Not tolerated unauthorised travellers on land not owned by travellers, rising from 262 in July 2024 to 351 in July 2025, MHCLG, Count of Traveller Caravans: Live Tables, June 2024, Live Table 1, link).

The Conservative Party plan to enact a major crackdown on unauthorised traveller camps, backed by robust legal powers:

• In October 2025, Conservatives set out a comprehensive plan to leave the ECHR and scrap the Human Rights Act, advised by legal expert, Lord Wolfson. In addition to ensuring stronger borders, there will also be domestic benefits from this policy (Conservative Party, The Wolfson Report, October 2025, link).

• After leaving the ECHR and scrapping Labour's Human Rights Act, we will have the ability to back our police with the powers they need to remove trespassing travellers. After leaving the ECHR, we will make it an offence for two or more people to trespass with a vehicle after they have been directed to leave. Our previous attempts to give the police more powers to stop travellers from trespassing was thwarted by lawfare. Outside the ECHR, we can go further than was possible under the last Conservative Government.

• We will recruit 10,000 more police officers to give them the manpower they need to tackle trespassing travellers. Alongside tripling the use of stop and search, we will recruit 10,000 additional police officers over three years, at a cost of £800 million.