‘Katie Lam didn’t speak “imprecisely”. She accurately stated the Conservative party’s existing policy’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has been mocked for calling Katie Lam’s comments on ILR “imprecise”, even though they accurately reflected her party’s policy.
Last week, Lam sparked backlash when she said her party wanted to deport large numbers of families who have already been given indefinite leave to remain (ILR) to ensure the UK is mostly “culturally coherent”.
While her disgraceful comments about “cultural coherence” drew criticism last week, even Badenoch’s spokesman confirmed her points on ILR were “broadly in line” with party policy.
But yesterday, in a speech to journalists, Badenoch claimed the MP Weald of Kent had spoken “imprecisely” about her party’s stance.
She said: “No, we’re not being retrospective. When we put that amendment through, it was for a live Bill, so it wouldn’t have been retrospective. It was applied to a specific cohort,” she said.
“So she (Ms Lam) just stated it imprecisely”.
In reality, this ILR policy was included in the Tories’ Deportation Bill, which they introduced to parliament and tried to pass in May. The bill is now a Private Members’ Bill led by Chris Philp.
One of the measures in the bill involved revoking indefinite leave to remain (ILR) from anyone earning below £38,700 or claiming benefits, and would have applied to anyone granted ILR who had not gone on to gain British citizenship.
This raises the question, that even Conservative Home is asking, “do the Tories know their own immigration policy?”.
Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, wrote on Bluesky: “Badenoch obvs wrong about what her bill said.”
Referring to the Tories’ deportation bill, he said: “No cohort was specified. It was clearly retrospective by design.”
Journalist Adam Bienkov, wrote on Bluesky: “This is farcical. Katie Lam didn’t speak “imprecisely”. She accurately stated the Conservative party’s existing policy, which they tried to pass as a Bill in Parliament earlier this year, and which Badenoch’s spokesman defended himself just last week.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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