Kemi Badenoch has slapped down a shadow minister’s suggestion that a large number of migrants should have their legal status in the UK retrospectively revoked.
The Conservative leader said Katie Lam spoke “imprecisely” when she appeared to indicate that some people already granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in Britain could have their residency taken away.
The Tory policy to remove ILR in certain circumstances was included in a private member’s Bill sponsored by shadow home secretary Chris Philp earlier this year.
The proposed legislation called for ILR to be revoked where a person had received “any form of ‘social protection’ (including housing) from the UK Government or a local authority”.
But asked by journalists on Thursday whether the plans would apply to people already granted settled status, Mrs Badenoch said “we’re not being retrospective”.
It was put to the Tory leader that Ms Lam, who has attracted speculation about her ambitions in recent months, had made it sound as if migrants with ILR could potentially have it removed.
“No, we’re not being retrospective. When we put that amendment through, it was for a live Bill, so it wouldn’t have been retrospective. It was applied to a specific cohort,” she said.
She added: “So she (Ms Lam) just stated it imprecisely.”
In an interview with the Sunday Times last week, Tory MP for Weald of Kent and shadow Home Office minister Ms Lam said: “There are also a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so.
“It’s not the fault of the individuals who came here, they just shouldn’t have been able to do so. They will also need to go home.
“What that will leave is a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people.”
Ms Lam, who has denied being linked to efforts to set up a leadership campaign to challenge Mrs Badenoch, was reported to have faced internal Tory backlash for the remarks.
In February, Mrs Badenoch set out plans to prevent people from claiming the permanent settled status if they were claiming benefits or had a criminal record.
Migrants would also not be able to claim it until they spent 10 years in the country under the Tories’ plans, rather than the most common qualifying period of five years.
The Conservatives denied they had scrapped their plans to toughen up leave to remain rules after questions were raised about the scope of the policy following Ms Lam’s remarks.
A spokesman for Mrs Badenoch was on Wednesday asked to clear up whether the party planned to retrospectively revoke ILR, and said the party’s comprehensive policy on legal migration was yet to be announced.
“It is now our formal announced policy to restrict benefits to anyone who is not a British citizen. That is policy. We announced that at conference,” he said.
“The remainder of our legal migration plan will be announced in the coming weeks.”
Mr Philp insisted that the position remained as it had been set out in February, saying there had been “no change.”
But Labour said the shadow home secretary and Ms Lam had both been “completely undermined” by the confusion.
Party chairwoman Anna Turley said: “This is a humiliation for the Tories – for Katie Lam and Chris Philp, who have been completely undermined, and for Kemi Badenoch, who didn’t even appear to understand her own policy.
“It’s still unclear what the Conservatives’ actual position is, but what is clear is that senior Tories continue to believe we should be deporting people who have played by the rules and settled here – our friends and neighbours and colleagues – based on so-called ‘cultural coherence’.
“If Katie Lam and Chris Philp can remain in post after this monumental failure of leadership and judgment, then you have to ask – how can anyone take the Conservative Party seriously?”
