How the Tory Leadership Race May Affect Immigration

Leadership contender Robert Jenrick stressed his commitment to capping net migration in the tens of thousands

The two frontrunners in the Conservative Party leadership race have disagreed over the best way to reduce immigration, an issue that dominated the general elections in the United Kingdom in July.

And while the Conservatives were swept aside in the polls, their position on immigration may well affect what the Government decides to do.

Immigrants who bring "foreign conflicts" with them should not be welcomed to the U.K., BBC reported Conservative leadership contender Kemi Badenoch as saying September 29.

She told the BBC she believed in "western values, the principles which have made this country great, and I think that we need to make sure that we continue to abide by those principles, to keep the society that we have now".

Leadership rival Robert Jenrick told the same programme immigration was at the top of his list of issues to fix and took issue with Badenoch's emphasis on culture.

He said the U.K. needed to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to resolve the problem, a move Badenoch hasn’t supported.

Two other candidates remain in the Conservative leadership contest - shadow home secretary James Cleverly and shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat. All four used the Conservative Party conference that ended 2 October to present their cases to Tory activists. A winner and successor to Rishi Sunak will be announced on 2 November.

Badenoch used an article in the Sunday Telegraph to argue the country expected immigrants to share the U.K.'s values, BBC said.

"We cannot be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not," she wrote.

Jenrick stressed his commitment to capping net migration in the tens of thousands, he said: "Numbers also matter.

“Just saying ‘I’ll have a plan in a few years’ time’ is a recipe for in-fighting and for losing the public’s trust. I have a plan."

Net migration, the number of people immigrating to the U.K. minus those emigrating, climbed to a record 764,000 in 2022, about three times the annual average before the pandemic. Net migration fell 10 percent in 2023 to 685,000, the Office of National Statistics has said, but was still well above pre-pandemic levels.

Badenoch accused Jenrick of misrepresenting her position, saying numbers did matter but "culture matters even more. Who comes into the country is absolutely critical."

Asked which cultures were "less valid", she said it was "not about labelling cultures".

"I think that cultures where women are told that they should not work, I would knock on doors... and you would see somebody at the door who says 'I can't speak to you, I will get my husband'. I don't think that is as equally valid as our culture."

Badenoch, who was born in London but spent much of her childhood in Nigeria before returning to the U.K., added she did not want "this place to turn into the place I was running away from".

The shadow communities secretary called for a better integration strategy for immigrants which emphasised British values, to "make sure that we have a shared culture and a shared identity".

"It is our job to make sure that the people who come into the country are people who love this country, who want it to succeed."

Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister from Sunak's cabinet, used his interview to stress the need to put a legally-binding cap on immigration numbers, saying otherwise politicians would "continue to let the public down”.

Asked if he would be willing to leave jobs unfilled in order to bring down numbers, he said: “I don’t think that’s going to happen… but if you’re asking me would I prioritise this, yes I would. "I don’t pretend that ending this era of mass migration is going to be plain sailing."