Kemi Badenoch has tried to outdo Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration rhetoric by vowing to deport women and children if the Tories were in power.
The Conservative leader said that allowing illegal migrants to stay in the UK would create ‘loopholes’ that could be exploited.
Her comments came after Farage performed a U-turn on his plans to include women and children in Reform’s mass deportations policy.
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Farage said his party was focused on deporting “illegal males,” although any women arriving alone would also be deported.
Speaking to GB News, Badenoch vowed to deport women and children in a clear – and perhaps desperate – bid to pander to Reform supporters.
She said: “We have said that if you come to our country illegally, then you will be deported.
“Now we have a plan to process people in a third country. That would include, of course, women and children, because if you start making exceptions then you will find people finding a way to use those loopholes.
“Of course, we want to make sure that we have an asylum system that works, but right now it is being exploited by a lot of people who are not genuine asylum seekers.
“They are just economic migrants, and they are taking us for a ride. It’s costing billions.”
On Tuesday, Farage laid out Reform’s migration plans, which would result in some 600,000 people being deported from Britain over a five-year period.
Initially, Farage had said this would include women and children, adding: “Everybody on arrival, will be detained.”
But on Wednesday, the Clacton MP told the press he had been “very, very clear” that the party was focused on “illegal males” and “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.