Despite Farage backtracking on that policy, Badenoch has doubled down in a bid to pander to Reform voters and the right-wing of her own party’s base.
In a race to the bottom with Reform UK, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has proudly declared that she too would be happy to deport women and children in a bid to deal with small boat crossings.
In an attempt to pander to Reform voters, Badenoch said that she would deport women and children who arrive in the country illegally, after Farage had to row back on a similar commitment just hours earlier.
Earlier this week, Farage set out his plans to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants in five years if his party wins the next election. In order to do so, the Reform UK leader said anybody who arrived illegally would be immediately detained, including women and children, and that he would pull Britain out of the Human Rights Act as well as the European Convention on Human Rights. The Reform UK leader also said that his party was open to doing deals with despotic regimes such as Iran and Afghanistan to agree deportation deals, even if it meant people being sent back to be tortured.
Less than 24 hours later, Farage had to U-turn on his pledge to detain and deport women and children, saying that it was not part of Reform’s plans for its first term, should it win power.
Despite Farage backtracking on that policy, Badenoch has doubled down in a bid to pander to Reform voters and the right-wing of her own party’s base.
Badenoch told GB News: “We have said that if you come to our country illegally, then you will be deported.
“Now we have a plan to process people in a third country. That would include, of course, women and children, because if you start making exceptions then you will find people finding a way to use those loopholes.
“Of course, we want to make sure that we have an asylum system that works, but right now it is being exploited by a lot of people who are not genuine asylum seekers.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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