By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-10-06 17:00:48 | Updated at 2026-10-08 20:43:29
2 days ago
Kemi Badenoch has told GB News that the Tories “can and will” end the small boats crisis despite 127,896 crossing under the Conservative Party’s watch.
Mrs Badenoch, who served in frontbench posts between 2019 and 2024, claimed the Tories plan will ensure no more boats cross the English Channel.
Speaking to The People's Channel at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, the Tory leader said: “We can and we will.”
Mrs Badenoch added: “With the boat crossings, we need to leave the Convention on Human Rights.
“You can't do it without that and the reason why we have this problem with asylum centres and migrant hotels is that more and more people are coming, and the Government won't do the one thing that it needs to do.”
Mrs Badenoch insisted the Tories “tried everything else” while in power to end the crisis in the Channel.
However, 127,896 small boat migrants arrived on British shores while the Tories were in power between January 2018 and July 2024.
Around 65,800 crossed while Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, with 50,637 making the 21-mile journey under Rishi Sunak.
Kemi Badenoch speaks to GB News at the 2026 Conservative Party Conference
GB NEWS
Theresa May’s total hit just 1,051 in her 36 months in power, compared to Liz Truss’s 10,397 figure in 49 days.
However, small boats have continued to cross the Channel since Labour came to power in July 2024.
Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to smash the gangs failed to stop 77,183 arriving on British shores.
Meanwhile, an additional 7,400 have crossed under Andy Burnham’s watch.
Mrs Badenoch said leaving the ECHR was not a “silver bullet” but stressed Labour would not consider announcing the change.
She added: “You have to start with that but there's other stuff that you need to do. You need a third country deterrent, Rwanda or somewhere else.
"We need to scrap the immigration tribunals that are just rubber-stamping everybody's applications, whether they need asylum or not.
“From our perspective, we need to work with European partners.”
However, the Tories were particularly critical of Labour’s “one-in, one-out” deal with France.
GB News revealed the UK spent more than £1.4billion giving money to France since 2018.
Hundreds of millions of pounds were handed to France while the Tories were in power.
But Mrs Badenoch insisted the Tories had changed since the 2024 General Election.
She told GB News: "We are under new management. Your viewers will know that sometimes you have a football team that is disappointing, there's a new captain, there's a new coach, there's a new owner, effectively, which is all me.
"And I've got a great team around me, I've got a new team of people, we're changing our policies.
"We know we got things wrong, immigration was too high, I've got a plan to fix that, leaving the ECHR, we've got our Borders plan, it's very comprehensive, it's costed, we've found the money."
Mrs Badenoch also promised all Tory candidates would need to sign up to leaving the ECHR and scrapping net zero targets.
