Plan unveiled to deport 150,000 people a year and remove illegal arrivals in a week

A Removals Force modelled on America's ICE agency would deport 150,000 people a year under bold Tory plans being unveiled today to tackle the migrant crisis.

This force would also remove all new illegal immigrants within a week as the Conservatives promise "radical action" to stop the flood of small boats arriving on our shores.

By using the blueprint of the hard-hitting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency people with no right to live in the UK would not be allowed to stay in this country for months and years while applications and appeals are processed, costing the taxpayer billions of pounds.

And the new force will be expected to remove at least 750,000 people over the lifetime of a Parliament.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick exclusively told the Sunday Express removals will continue "until every single illegal migrant in this country is deported".

"Frankly, we've been pussy-footing for too long as a country and that's got to end," he said. "We've actually got to show some muscle and determination and fix this once and for all."

He pledged Britain under the Tories would stop issuing visas and giving foreign aid to countries which refuse to take back people deported from the UK. The present immigration tribunal system would be scrapped with decisions instead made by the Home Office.

The increase in deportations would be funded, the Tories claim, by closing "asylum hotels" and tackling the costs of Britain's "out-of-control asylum system - which amounts to a staggering £4.76billion each year".

The new Removals Force would replace the Home Office's immigration enforcement service and see its funding doubled to £1.6billion a year.

The announcements come as Conservatives gather in Manchester for their second annual conference since their disastrous defeat to Labour in the 2024 election.

Mr Jenrick said it is vital they show "this is a new Conservative party that's going to be doing things differently to how they were done in the recent past".

Under Tory plans, anyone who has entered the UK illegally will be banned for making an asylum claim. As well as pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights, the UK would repeal the Human Rights Act and abandon the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT).

The Tories says this would stop the illegal migrants and foreign criminals staying in Britain on "flimsy claims".

The plans are intended to result in the "removal of all new illegal arrivals within a week and all foreign criminals". People whose visas have expired will also be deported.

Setting out his vision for immigration in the future, Mr Jenrick said: "I want the UK to be the grammar school of the western world, where we bring in the coders, the serial entrepreneurs, the consultant doctors to help drive our economy and power our public services.

"But we can't have low wage, low-skilled migrants and all their families coming in here, taking resources from hard-working Brits and making our country less united."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "We must tackle the scourge of illegal immigration into Britain and secure our borders. That is why the Conservatives are setting out a serious and comprehensive new plan to end this crisis."

Mrs Badenoch, who will this week address the Tories' annual conference for the first time as leader, added: "We will deal with those who have already arrived, create a strong deterrent to those who try and come, and tackle swiftly any who still manage to cross the Channel."

A Labour spokesman said: "The Conservatives' message on immigration is: we got everything wrong, we won't apologise, now trust us.

"It won't wash - Kemi Badenoch's party enabled record high net migration as removals plummeted, opened over 400 asylum hotels and wasted £700million of taxpayers' money to send just four volunteers to Rwanda.

"This Labour Government is fixing the Tories' mess by smashing the people smuggling gangs running the vile small boats trade, closing asylum hotels, deporting foreign criminals and signing international returns deals to bring order to Britain's borders."

The most recent official figures show 57,643 people have come to the UK by small boats since Labour took power in July last year.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "Small boat crossings have hit record levels under Labour, with over 50,000 entrants this year alone; 32,000 people are in asylum hotels across the country. This is simply unsustainable.

"Labour has no answer to these problems, just gimmicks. Reform has a series of hastily cobbled together press releases with no plan to deliver any of it. The country deserves a party that is serious about tackling this crisis.

"That is why the Conservatives have developed a real plan - backed by detailed legal analysis and serious structural reforms - to deliver what the British public deserve. This will end illegal migration."

A Reform UK spokesman said: "The Tories had 14 years to do this, instead they opened the borders and allowed mass immigration. They simply aren't credible and cannot be trusted."