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Kemi Badenoch declared the Conservatives are "up for the fight" as she opened the party's annual conference in Manchester on Sunday. Breaking with tradition to deliver a welcome speech, the Conservative leader acknowledged her party faced "a mountain to climb" as it languishes third in polls behind Reform UK and Labour.
Setting out plans to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and deport 150,000 people annually, Badenoch insisted the party could win the next election by "combining secure borders with a shared culture". She told the conference: "Nations cannot survive on diversity alone. We need a strong common culture rooted in our history, our language, our institutions and our belief in liberty under the law."
Immigration dominates conference agenda
Immigration took centre stage at the conference, with "stronger borders" displayed as one of two key slogans at the venue. Badenoch told GB News that every Conservative candidate must commit to leaving the ECHR or face being barred from standing at the next election.
The party published detailed proposals on Sunday targeting the deportation of 750,000 people over five years. The plans include creating a "Removals Force" inspired by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside radical tightening of asylum eligibility and abolishing immigration courts.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said he would deport foreign nationals expressing "racial hatred, including antisemitism" or supporting "extremism or terrorism". However, when asked where people would be deported to if they cannot be sent to their own country, Badenoch declined to specify, describing this as an "irrelevant" question.
Policy clarifications emerge
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel clarified the proposed Removals Force would be "very different" from the US agency. She said: "The two are not comparable. Our system and our structures and our laws are different."
Economic responsibility pledge
Badenoch stressed her party's commitment to economic responsibility, saying it had "learnt" from Liz Truss's disastrous mini-budget. She declared: "Economic responsibility is the hallmark of the Conservative approach and today it is right back at the heart of everything we stand for."
"We may be in Manchester, but the theme of economic responsibility will run through this conference like the words in a stick of Blackpool rock," she added. The leader positioned herself against what she termed the identity politics of both Labour and Reform.
Culture and identity focus
Badenoch emphasised the importance of shared British values, describing Labour and Reform as "two sides of the same coin" that both practised "identity politics" and "division". She made a personal statement about rejecting such categorisation.
"I am black, I am a woman, I am a conservative, and I know that identity politics is a trap. It reduces people to categories and then pits them against each other," she said. "But I am more than black, female and even conservative. I am British, as we all are, and my children are British, and I will not allow anyone on the left to tell them that they belong in a different category, or anyone on the right to tell them that they do not belong in their own country."
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
