Kemi Badenoch’s migrant crackdown: Is Britain’s ‘compassionate’ reputation over?
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Seven months after losing the 2024 general election, the Conservative Party has unveiled its first new policy – a crackdown on migrants becoming UK citizens.
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In brief…
- Kemi Badenoch has unveiled Tory plans to increase the time it takes for people from overseas to secure the right to remain in the UK or become a citizen.
- The News Agents say it’s no coincidence that this announcement comes days after a new YouGov poll showed most British people would vote for Reform UK in a general election.
- They add that Badenoch’s ‘Britain first’ approach echoes Donald Trump, and shows that Britain’s days of being seen as a “compassionate” country are over.
What’s the story?
In 2024, the Conservative Party put migration at the heart of its general election campaign.
It lost, suffering the worst defeat of its history, conceding seats to Labour, Lib Dems and Reform UK.
Seven months later, and the Tories, still hoping to stage a comeback, have unveiled its first policy – and it's a crackdown on migration.
Leader Kemi Badenoch has said if elected, the Tories will make it harder for people from overseas to make the UK their home. She says the party would double the period people need to spend in the UK before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain from five to 10 years.
Additionally, anyone who has claimed benefits, accessed social housing or has a criminal record would be automatically blocked from applying to become a UK resident.
It would also only permit people to apply for British citizenship after 15 years of indefinite leave to remain.
Badenoch has said the UK operates a "conveyor belt" for migrant people to become citizens.
Under the previous Tory government, of which she was a part, immigration into the UK hit a record high, with 906,000 people entering in the year to June 2023.
I said last year that the Conservatives will come forward with a plan to fix our immigration system. Today I’ve announced the first part: that living here has to mean something.
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) February 6, 2025
That means making bold changes to who we allow to live in Britain, and how they apply.
Let’s break… pic.twitter.com/AeETfO3XeR
Why now?
The News Agents say it’s “no surprise” why Badenoch, who has always insisted on caution around announcing new Conservative policy, has made this announcement now.
A new YouGov poll has revealed most people in the UK would back Reform UK in a general election.
“She's a political figure who has said repeatedly that she wasn't going to be rushed into policy, but she has decided to come up with one today,” says Lewis Goodall.
“The poll showed that not only was Reform UK first in terms of voting intention, but the Tory party was four points behind in third place.”
He adds that Badenoch – and the Tory party in general – now find themselves doing what all parties do when they leave power, and are thrust across the Commons onto the opposition benches.
“She thinks the way to seek absolution from the electorate is to basically say - you know us,” Lewis says.
“You know how we were in government six months ago. We were shit. We were terrible. Now, elect us again.”
He says Badenoch is telling voters they were "right" to vote them out of power, and ultimately rejecting "every bit of the legacy" the Tories had built.
Where does Badenoch’s migration policy fall down?
Along with the changes to key time periods in the process of becoming a British citizen, Badenoch also proposed that anyone moving to the UK from overseas would need to prove that they would bring more to the country than they would take.
But this, and the sheer unpredictability of life itself, makes this an impossible proposition, Emily Maitlis says.
“It's almost impossible to try and qualify what you would be worth to the state versus what you take from the state in terms of your kids education,” she says.
“Maybe you don't have any kids. Maybe you don't know if you're going to have two kids or three kids or no kids.”
Lewis says there is a long-established trope that the UK is a “soft touch” when it comes to migration, and its process to become a UK citizen.
“The truth is – as anyone who has gone through the citizenship process, or had much interaction with the home office as a migrant will tell you – no, that is very much not the case.”
He says that most law-abiding British citizens will never interact with the Home Office in any capacity, and if they did, they would want it – and its processes – scrapped.
What’s The News Agents’ take?
As so many things seem to in 2025, everything comes back to Reform UK and (of course), Donald Trump.
“Reform is where the polls are, and where people's heads are,” says Emily.
She says Trump’s return to The White House has opened doors to other parts of the world to follow his ‘America first’ approach to governing, despite the criticism of such a right-wing approach to politics.
“What we're hearing in less explicit language from Kemi Badenooch is something that she thinks is an echo of that – Britain first,” Emily adds.
“She's not actually rounding up migrants and sending them back over the Mexican border, but she's saying prove that you are worth something to us.
“We're not going to be the compassionate society Britain had a reputation for.”
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