Tories pledge to 'immediately' shut down Labour's new asylum routes for Afghans and Palestinians

Published: 17:00 EDT, 6 October 2026 | Updated: 18:06 EDT, 6 October 2026 New asylum routes being set up by Labour for Afghans and Palestinians will be 'immediately' shut down if the Conservatives win the next General Election.Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the scheme should not be contemplated amid 'rife' illegal immigration.Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, announced the plan last week, saying the 'safe routes' would be largely focussed on Palestinians and Afghan women and girls.She insisted the scheme would help 'unlock the inherent generosity of this country'.But Mr Philp will say in his speech to Conservative Party conference on Wednesday: 'While illegal migration is rife, the government should not be opening our borders even more – and we would close this scheme down immediately.'He has also announced plans for a removals force to deport 150,000 failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and visa overstayers a year.Mr Philp said that over the course of the next Parliament a new Home Office unit would use broader removal powers to kick out three-quarters of a million foreign nationals with no right to be in the UK.'We would aim to have 150,000 people a year removed by a removals force,' said Mr Philp. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp will address Conservative delegates at the party's annual conference in Birmingham'Over a Parliament, that's three quarters of a million.'So the priority would be those people arriving illegally by small boat.'They would have to go straight away and that would have a deterrent effect.'In his speech, the Shadow Home Secretary will warn that Labour's plan to make migrants wait longer before winning permanent status in the UK is set to be 'emasculated' as the Government panders to its 'open borders MPs'.Ms Mahmood published proposals last November to double foreign nationals' waiting period for 'indefinite leave to remain' (ILR).Mr Philp will say: 'As Home Secretary I would put the rights of our citizens first.'Shabana Mahmood won't do that.'She spent the last year claiming to be tough. But under pressure from Angela Rayner and open borders Labour MPs she now plans to emasculate her own ILR reforms.'This will mean hundreds of thousands of low-wage or no wage migrants will stay forever – costing taxpayers billions.'Shabana has surrendered.'Ms Mahmood insisted last year that the measures were essential to head off the immense cost to the Treasury when migrants who arrived in the post-Covid immigration surge become eligible for ILR.From next year two million migrants will be able to claim a wider range of benefits and handouts if they successfully apply for ILR.But MPs from the Labour Left complained it was unfair to change the rules for migrants already in the UK, with dozens signing an open letter in February opposing the proposals.And in June PM Andy Burnham's housing and communities secretary Angela Rayner, who was then a backbencher, described Ms Mahmood's scheme as 'un-British' and 'wrong'.On law and order, Mr Philp's speech will condemn a police 'anti-racism commitment' that says people should be treated differently according to the colour of their skin.A document published last year by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said 'racial equity' should not mean 'treating everyone the same or being colour blind'.Mr Philp will say the NPCC policy 'expressly says police should treat different ethnic groups differently to artificially engineer the same arrest rates'.'That is literally racist,' he will tell delegates, pledging to have the document scrapped under a Tory government.The Shadow Home Secretary is also expected to mock Reform UK.'They offer the financial probity of Nigel Farage, the calm geniality of Zia Yusuf and the selfless loyalty of Robert Jenrick,' he will tell delegates.