Gladness Gideon
The leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has called for sweeping reforms to Britain’s immigration system, urging tougher controls on both legal and illegal migration to protect what she described as “basic fairness” for British citizens.
In a strongly worded opinion piece published by the Daily Mail UK, Badenoch argued that the current system disproportionately benefits those who circumvent immigration rules, leaving law-abiding citizens to bear the financial burden.
“Britain today seems to work more favourably for those who jump the queue, who break the rules, who get into our country illegally but then denigrate our customs and our culture,” she wrote.
Badenoch highlighted the billions spent on accommodating asylum seekers in hotels and expressed concern over lesser-known entitlements granted to low-paid migrants and refugees.
“Immigrants who stay here for five years qualify for indefinite leave to remain, making them eligible for benefits like social housing and Universal Credit — even if they’ve never paid a penny in taxes,” she stated.
“To my mind, that is fundamentally unfair to all the hard-working Brits.”
The Conservative leader also took aim at the Labour Government, accusing it of undermining attempts to strengthen immigration controls. She pointed to Labour’s rejection of the Deportation Bill, a proposed law that sought to double the waiting period for benefit eligibility and citizenship applications from five to ten years.
READ ALSO: Kemi Badenoch Proposes Stricter Immigration Rules, Extends British Citizenship Timeline
“The Bill would have barred benefit claimants from gaining indefinite leave to remain and empowered the government to strip settled status from immigrants convicted of any crime,” she wrote.
“It was designed to protect our borders and uphold fairness in our benefits system. But thanks to Labour, it was shot down.”
Badenoch acknowledged that many of the proposed measures could face legal hurdles similar to the Rwanda deportation plan, which was suspended following court challenges involving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
“That scheme became bogged down in our courts and frustrated by unnamed foreign judges,” she said, lamenting the influence of international legal frameworks on British immigration policy.
Her comments come amid growing public debate over migration, benefits entitlement, and the balance between national sovereignty and international legal obligations.