The race to lead the UK Conservative Party is heating up, with both contenders, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, focusing their campaigns on a promise to drastically reduce immigration – an issue that has been a thorn in the side of the party for over a decade, Bloomberg reports.
This move signals a further shift to the right for the Conservatives, who have traditionally been the party of government in the UK. While the party has pledged to reduce immigration in the past, they have struggled to make significant progress, facing challenges like the dependence of key industries on overseas workers and a growing public perception that immigration is putting pressure on public services.
Jenrick, who previously served as Immigration Minister, has promised to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to facilitate more deportations. Badenoch, however, believes this doesn’t go far enough.
This focus on immigration echoes a trend across the political landscape, with right-leaning parties in various countries using immigration as a key campaign point. In the US, former President Donald Trump has made immigration a defining issue in his campaign for the upcoming election. Similarly, in Europe, immigration has played a significant role in recent elections in countries like Germany.
In the UK, the Conservatives’ recent defeat in the July election, partly attributed to gains made by Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party, has fueled the focus on immigration.
However, some experts believe that prioritizing immigration could make it harder for the Conservatives to regain power. This strategy might alienate more moderate voters and potentially push them towards the Liberal Democrats or even the governing Labour Party.
Both Jenrick and Badenoch face a challenge in their bid to appeal to the Conservative grassroots, who tend to hold more right-wing views than the general electorate. Jenrick has revived a pledge from former Prime Minister David Cameron’s 2010 campaign to bring net migration down to the “tens of thousands.” However, this goal has proven elusive for Cameron’s successors, including Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak.
The candidates have yet to offer concrete solutions on how to reduce immigration without disrupting essential sectors reliant on overseas workers. While they have addressed the issue of “small boat” arrivals, which represent only a small portion of overall migration, they have remained silent on the larger influx of migrants arriving on work or student visas. Reducing these groups would have a substantial impact on sectors like adult social care and education, potentially exacerbating existing staffing shortages in key areas like the NHS.
