Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP sets out our plan to protect our country's borders, stop illegal boat crossings, and work towards ending illegal immigration. Read his speech in full below.
Like Kemi, let me start by condemning the appalling terrorist attack in this city last Thursday.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families whose lives, on that holy Yom Kippur morning, were so wickedly torn apart. But we will also stay strong in the face of terror. We will never change our way of life, because we are stronger than them. And I know everyone in this hall and beyond will renew their resolve to fight the ancient evil of antisemitism wherever it is found.
It has no place in any civilised country. Not in our United Kingdom. Not ever.
And if a foreign citizen expresses racial hatred, including antisemitism or supports extremism or terrorism, I’ll tell you this as Home Secretary I’ll deport them.
And I would like to thank the police and security services who responded so fast last week. They take risks up and down the country every single day to protect us, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. Thank you.
Conference, this is a historic moment. As the Leader just announced, we have concluded it is right for our country to leave the ECHR.
This is not a decision taken lightly. We have thought long and hard. And unlike others, we did not leap without first carefully considering all the implications. I thank Lord Wolfson for his detailed and masterful legal analysis. There he is, thank you David.
We are, of course, deeply aware of why the Convention was originally written, in the aftermath of the horrors that ravaged Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. And we remain as committed as ever to protecting rights and to the rule of law.
But the way the courts now interpret the ECHR makes it unrecognisable from the system which Winston Churchill first helped shape.
And we are clear about this: the ability to control our country’s borders is non-negotiable.
We will not, and we cannot, compromise on the ability of our democratically elected parliament to set the laws that govern who comes here, and who stays
Because if we can’t control our borders then we are no country at all. With no border control we would lose our identify and we would lose our security. And this party will always protect our identify and will always protect our security.
Now, the small boat crisis has brought this issue into sharp focus. The government said they would smash the gangs. Well, that is now laughable. Because so far all they have smashed are records for illegal arrivals. This year has been the worst in history. This Labour government has lost control of our borders. They are weak and they have let Britain down.
The Prime Minister’s latest gimmick is his one-in-one-out deal with France. Since that deal was announced, 11,000 illegal immigrants have come in, and about seven have gone out. Even Rachel Reeves with her dubious CV can tell that doesn’t add up.
And every single channel migrant is coming here illegally and is a paying customer of people smugglers. They are departing from France, a safe country. These journeys are unnecessary.
And we have seen some terrible crimes committed by migrants who came on small boats and were accommodated in hotels at our expense.
Let me tell you about Abdelrahmen Abouelela. He is a 42-year-old Egyptian illegal immigrant who came here by small boat. He was accommodated in a Hilton Hotel in Ealing - at our expense. He then proceeded to brutally rape a young woman, who was walking home at night in Hyde Park. She was alone and she was vulnerable. It now turns out that Abdelrahmen is also has convictions in Egypt as an Islamist terrorist. In another case, a fourteen-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a channel immigrant – who later said in his culture that was acceptable behaviour.
This is sick. We must do whatever it takes to end this madness.
It is now clear to this new leadership that our international obligations have been stopping us from acting effectively. We experienced this in government and the decision to leave the ECHR was reached partly as a result of that.
And now Lord Wolfson has clearly advised, and I quote, that “ECHR membership places significant practical limits on the UK’s ability to maintain control of its borders.” And that is why must come out. Because this party is determined to control our borders.
And to those who say this will make us an international pariah where rights are casually disregarded, look at Australia or Canada. They aren’t in the ECHR. And the UK is the land of the original Bill of Rights, the body common law, the writ Habeus Corpus and protections in law that Parliament has passed. Our rights in this country long predate the ECHR.
And to those who say we must stay in the ECHR to set an example to others, I ask this: does our membership of the ECHR really make the slightest difference to way that Russia or China behaves? No, of course, not
The ECHR started as a noble endeavour. But it has become twisted by Judges expanding the meaning of well-intentioned but vaguely worded clauses. Shocking examples of this abound.
Like a paedophile not returned to Zimbabwe in case he faces hostility there – without a single thought for the rights of children here to be protected.
Or a drug dealer not returned to Iraq because he’s too westernised.
Or a violent murderer not returned to Uganda because mental health services there are apparently not as good as here. All ECHR cases.
These criminals are all still in the UK. They’re still all posing a risk to our citizens. All thanks to the ECHR.
So, this madness must end.
But as Lord Wolfson very wisely said, leaving the ECHR alone is not enough. We need a full plan, a complete plan to fix Labours’ borders crisis – which leaving the ECHR enables.
And let me be clear about this. The Reform Party has not bothered to develop such a plan. They trumpet slogans dreamt up in a pub and written on the back of a fag packet. But they have not done the detailed work needed to make real change happen.
Well, this party has done the work. It’s called the BORDERS Plan, and we published today.
Enabled by ECHR exit, we will ban all asylum and other claims by illegal immigrants. And this will mean all those arriving illegally – including by small boat – will be immediately deported back to their country of origin if possible or to a third country like Rwanda if not within a week of arrival.
And the deterrent effect of that will mean people will rapidly stop bothering to attempt the crossing in the first place. Why would you attempt the crossing in the first place? Why would you attempt the crossing if you are going to be immediately removed?
It worked in Australia 12 years ago. It is working in the United States of America this year. And it will work here too.
And we will also deport all foreign criminals. Not some, all. There are currently about 20,000 serious foreign criminals roaming our streets who should have been deported already. They have gone on to commit between them a further 10,000 offences, including murder and rape.
It still shocks me that Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood signed a letter opposing deporting dangerous foreign criminals to Jamaica – one of whom later went on to commit murder here after he should have been deported.
Well, we won’t be signing letters like that. Instead, we will deport all those who pose a danger to the public. And that means every single foreign criminal.
And we will also end the legal quagmire. With endless appeals and judicial reviews. Made up and contradictory claims being heard.
Lawyers running up huge legal aid bills. I hope there are none of them here.
One man claimed asylum, you won’t believe this, one man claimed asylum saying he was Iraqi. When that claim was rejected, he said, he suddenly remembered that in fact he was Iranian, and the whole process started again.
And there was the notorious case of Yacub Ahmed, a Somali man who gang raped a 16-year-old girl.
After his sentence in prison had finished, it took eight years, eight years to deport Ahmed, because he made repeated asylum, human rights, and modern slavery claims.
Many migrants make claims on the eve of deportation to stay here, usually very shortly after they meet a taxpayer-funded lawyer who tells them what they need to say.
Judges accept all kinds of nonsensical arguments. Just last week, eight Afghans who can’t speak a word of English were allowed into the UK from Turkey – a safe country – on tenuous human rights grounds. Some Immigration Tribunal Judges even used to be open borders campaigners.
You literally couldn’t make this up.
So, we will abolish the Immigration Tribunal entirely, with decisions will be taken inside the Home Office.
There won’t be any immigration judicial review, except on the narrow grounds of statutory power.
And we will completely end the immigration legal aid gravy train by abolishing it.
People don’t need lawyers to make their claims, they just need to tell the truth, and their claim will be fairly decided.
We will compel countries to take back their own nationals. If a country won’t take back their own citizens where they commit a crime or have no right to be here, we will simply stop issuing entry visas to nationals of those countries to come here. We will use visa sanctions and withdraw overseas aid to countries who don’t take back their own nationals. We always take back ours and they should do the same.
We will also create a new Removals Force in the Home Office – doubling the current budget of the current enforcement team to £1.6 billion.
And by stripping away the legal obstacles, that I have described, and doubling that budget means we can remove 150,000 people a year that no legal right to be here. That is three-quarters of a million over the course of the next Parliament. This illegal immigration scandal will end.
So, Conference, we have a plan. Leave the ECHR. Deport all illegal immigrants immediately upon arrival and all foreign criminals. A new Force to remove 150,000 people year with no right to be here. Abolish the Immigration Tribunal. End Judicial Review and legal aid in immigration cases. And make sure countries take back their own citizens just as we do.
Now, we have thought deeply about this. Our plan is radical, yes, not because we are ideologues but because this plan has to be radical in order to work. The old ways have been tried, and they have failed. That’s why a new approach is needed.
Now, we have taken our time over this, and some people have criticised us for that. But we are now the only party, the only party to have a plan which is not only radical but will actually work in practice.
So, now, the Conservative party is back.
Back with the resolve to do what is needed to protect our country’s borders.
Back with determination to ensure the laws passed by our parliament are actually implemented
And back with a plan to end illegal immigration.
You can watch Chris Philp at Party Conference below 👇
Read our Borders plan in full 👇:
