The Conservative Party has unveiled a new £1.6 billion plan to create a powerful “removals force” designed to detain and deport 150,000 illegal migrants every year. Modelled after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the proposed force would replace the current Immigration Enforcement unit and be granted sweeping new powers, including the use of facial recognition technology without prior warning.
Kemi Badenoch is expected to formally present the plan at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, where reducing illegal migration and strengthening the UK’s borders are key talking points. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the proposal as a “detailed and comprehensive plan to get control of the country’s borders.”
The new removals force will receive an annual budget of £1.6 billion—double the current £820 million allocation—to raise deportations from 34,000 to 150,000 each year. Over a five-year parliament, this could total at least 750,000 removals. The funding is expected to come from closing asylum hotels and reducing the wider costs of the asylum system.
Speaking to the BBC, Badenoch declined to specify where deported migrants would be sent, calling such questions “irrelevant.” She said migrants “will go back to where they came from” or to another suitable country, insisting they “should not be here.”
However, the plan has already sparked criticism, particularly over the proposed expansion of live facial recognition technology, which some Conservatives warn could threaten individual freedoms. Critics have also drawn attention to the controversial record of ICE in the United States, where the agency has faced accusations of racial profiling and wrongful arrests.
The plan goes beyond deportations. It includes the government’s intention to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act, and exit the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. These steps aim to eliminate what the Tories describe as “legal blocks” that allow migrants and foreign criminals to stay in the UK.
Under the proposed asylum system overhaul, only those directly persecuted by their government would qualify as refugees. Those fleeing conflict or discriminatory laws on religion or sexuality would no longer be eligible. The Conservatives claim this would drastically reduce the number of people entitled to asylum.
Additionally, the immigration tribunal would be abolished, and migration decisions would fall solely under the Home Office, with limited rights of appeal. Legal aid would also be denied to immigration cases, which the party claims are often exploited by solicitors “coaching” applicants.
The proposal is seen as a direct response to pressure from Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, who has promised to deport 600,000 migrants within five years. Badenoch dismissed Reform’s pledges as “announcements that fall apart on arrival,” insisting the Conservative plan is “serious and credible.”
Labour, however, criticised the announcement, arguing that the Conservatives are attempting to regain trust after years of failure on immigration. A Labour spokesperson said the new plan “won’t wash,” adding that the government “enabled record-high net migration, opened over 400 asylum hotels, and wasted £700 million to send just four volunteers to Rwanda.”
What is the goal of the Conservative Party’s proposed “removals force”?
The plan aims to deport up to 150,000 illegal migrants annually by establishing a new ICE-style enforcement unit with expanded powers and increased funding.