The Conservatives have promised "sustained negative net migration" if elected, with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp announcing a binding annual cap on immigration that Parliament would vote on each year. Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference on Tuesday, he said the party would set the cap at a low level to ensure more people leave than arrive.
Philp said those who came to work in the UK but subsequently did not work or only worked on low wages must leave when their visa expires. He declared: "Let me say this: the days of mass, low-skill migration has to end."
Police recruitment pledge
The Conservatives committed to hiring 10,000 additional police officers at a cost of £800 million annually, funded by savings announced by the Chancellor on Monday. Philp said these officers would help deliver "surge hotspot policing" in 2,000 high-crime areas across the country.
The promised police expansion would deliver eight million hours of hotspot surge policing and prevent 35,000 crimes, according to Philp. He said every area with serious crime problems should have intensive hotspot patrolling year-round to deter crime and catch criminals.
Stop and search powers
In the designated high-crime hotspot areas, police would gain powers to stop and search without suspicion, with Philp vowing to triple the use of stop and search if he becomes Home Secretary. He argued that stop and search is vital for preventing knife crime.
Philp criticised current restrictions, saying: "It's insane that the smell of cannabis alone, or somebody wearing a menacing mask alone, does not generally allow, legally, a stop and search." He promised to change the law so anyone can be searched in hotspot areas without requiring suspicion.
Additional policy changes
The shadow home secretary pledged to abolish non-crime hate incidents, describing police responses to social media posts as "a catastrophic waste of time" that tramples on free speech. He said: "It is time to end the madness of police showing up on someone's doorstep because they have offended someone online."
Philp also promised to scrap the anti-racism commitment plan published by the College of Policing and Police Chiefs' Council, which he branded "absurd". He said the document "literally says policing should not be colour blind" and argued that treating racial groups differently to engineer the same arrest rates is "immoral, plain wrong".
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
