Robert Jenrick has unveiled the toughest Conservative immigration plan yet, going further than Nigel Farage and Reform UK by demanding a full decade of “net emigration”, meaning more people leaving Britain than entering.
The Shadow Justice Secretary said the Conservative Party must pledge to reverse decades of mass migration, returning to the position of the 1960s and 1970s when more people departed the UK than arrived.
“The country now needs breathing space after this period of mass migration. The era of low-wage, low-skilled migration, and the influx of dependents, has to end,” Jenrick told The Spectator. “Reversing recent low-skilled migration will likely mean a sustained period of net emigration. I would support that.”
While Nigel Farage has argued for “net zero” immigration, Jenrick’s proposals go further, calling for strict removal of illegal entrants, suspension of foreign aid for countries that refuse to take back their nationals, and Britain’s full withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Deportations Without Exception
Jenrick insisted that all illegal migrants, including women and children, should be deported to their home countries, even when those destinations are considered unsafe. He warned that exempting minors or families would only fuel abuse by people-smuggling gangs.
“The next government has to make deporting illegal migrants its priority,” he said. “If not, the gangs will exploit women and girls, and more young men will pose as teenagers.”
Unlike Reform’s proposal of fenced cabin sites, Jenrick argued illegal arrivals should be held in “rudimentary prisons, not holiday camps.”
Quitting Strasbourg Courts
On legal reforms, Jenrick said nothing short of leaving the ECHR will work. He dismissed calls to replace it with a British Bill of Rights, warning activist judges in London could prove as obstructive as those in Strasbourg.
Warning to Party Leadership
The intervention comes as pressure mounts on Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch ahead of next month’s party conference, where she is due to set out her own immigration stance. Many grassroots members still view Jenrick as a potential successor if Badenoch fails to recover in the polls.
A recent YouGov survey put Reform at 29 percent, Labour on 20 percent, the Conservatives on just 17 percent, and the Liberal Democrats close behind at 15 percent.
Jenrick said he had urged Rishi Sunak two years ago to cut legal migration dramatically, warning in a private memo that failure to do so would “betray the will of the British people.”
He now says mass uncontrolled migration has “wrecked British culture and identity” and insists that only the Conservatives can outflank both Labour and Reform with a credible plan.
Craig Hamilton Parker predicts America will do a massive trade deal and brexit is officially declared a success! History will remember the Tories were most to thank for brexit
Newsnight interviewed Nick Cregg last night, the lib Dem guy who fought against brexit. He is still bashing brexit with the “poorer, more divided and weaker” argument . He is well known for saying “the EU army is a dangerous fantasy”