‘British Conservatives drawing inspiration from an immigration crackdown so controversial that […] Germany’s far-right AfD has distanced itself from it’
Kemi Badenoch’s announcement that the Conservatives plan to create a UK version of Donald Trump’s notorious Immigration Customs Enforcement agency has drawn widespread criticism.
At her party’s annual conference yesterday, the Tory leader announced that if the Conservatives win power again, they would set up a removal force similar to Trump’s Ice agency.
Ice removed nearly 200,000 people in the first seven months of Trump’s second presidency, the US media has reported.
Ice is notorious for its brutality, with masked agents abducting people on the streets, after immigration court hearings and pulling people from their homes in the middle of the night.
Yet, Badenoch wants to import this brutal immigration enforcement model to the UK. She said it would give the removal force a mandate to deport at least 150,000 people each year.
In a video announcing the policy, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the plan would include banning asylum claims for “illegal entrants”, leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping the Human Rights Act.
Philp also claimed the Conservatives would deport “all illegal arrivals” within a week.
The Tories’ policy has been torn apart by critics.
Deutsche-Welle journalist Matthew Moore tweeted: “‘Modelled on Ice’ – British Conservatives drawing inspiration from an immigration crackdown so controversial that, checks notes, Germany’s far-right AfD has distanced itself from it.”
Another X user posted a video of a violent ICE attack on a car with a baby inside, with the caption: “Imagine bragging about bringing this to Britain”.
Another responded to Badenoch’s video, saying: “Have you seen what ICE is doing in the US ? They are tearing it apart. To even mention them in a sentence, as an aspiration for the UK, shows you are completely unfit for leadership.”
While the Conservatives adopted hardline rhetoric on immigration during their 14 years in power, the reality was Channel crossings and overall migration increased exponentially on their watch.
For example, between 2018 and 2024, the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats increased from 297 to 36,816.
Net migration figures also shot up after Brexit. In the year to June 2023, it reached 906,000, falling slightly to 728,000 by June 2024. By comparison, the number of non-EU migrants entering the UK was just 186,000 in 2019 and 101,000 in 2020.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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