UK politics live: Jenrick says ECHR is ‘leave or die’ issue and ramps up migration rhetoric at Tory conference

Robert Jenrick has said the Star of David should be displayed at every point of entry to the UK to show “we stand with Israel”.

The Tory leadership frontrunner told a Conservative Friends of Israel event he wanted Britain to be “the most welcoming country in the world for Israelis and the Jewish community”.

He said that, while immigration minister, he had pushed for Israelis travelling to Britain to be able to use e-gates. He said this would mean “at “every airport and point of entry to our great country”, there was a Star of David, as a “symbol that we support Israel”.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell has the full story below:

Kemi Badenoch has started her intervention at the Conservative Women’s Organisation fringe event with a short speech.

The leadership candidate said that she is someone who can “cut through” at a time when it is hard for the Tories to be heard.

Reflecting on the general election defeat, she said voters will not back the party they kicked out and claimed the Conservatives need to change to win.

As part of her pitch, she said that her campaign is about renewing the party and described herself as a leader who can “cut through at a time when it is very difficult to be heard”.

The former director general of the UK’s Border Force said that illegal immigrants need to be deported “swiftly” as Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to scrap the Rwanda Plan was criticised by Conservative Party members.

Tony Smith, who led the UK’s border force operation until 2013 after starting his career in the Home Office in the 1970s, told an immigration debate at the party’s conference in Birmingham he thought the plan by Rishi Sunak’s government to deport asylum seekers to the east African country was “imperfect, but a bold attempt to break the smuggling business model”.

Introduced as a member from Croydon, Mr Smith said: “When I was an immigration officer back in the day, and I’m talking about the 70s and 80s, if anybody came up to my desk without a passport, I refused them entry, and sent them straight back on the first plane.

“I moved into immigration enforcement in London, we found a lot of illegal immigrants. Same thing, if they had no passport, couldn’t verify their status, I would arrest them, detain them and remove them.”

He told the debate: “For our national security, and the safety of our children and our grandchildren, we must get back to the future.

“Undocumented migrants must know that they will be caught, detained and removed swiftly from the territory, just as I did back in the day.”

Robert Jenrick has suggested that he would cut back on laws like the Climate Change Act, the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act if he becomes prime minister.

During a fringe event, the Tory hopeful said Labour is creating more quangos and bodies, adding: “Great British Energy, Great British Railways, the National Wealth Fund, you name it.”

He said that, although they were set up with good intentions, they need to be cut back.

Mr Jenrick added: “And so I think we should think about. Should some of these go? Should they be amended? Can they be improved? And that that would be a major reform that we could bring in as soon as possible.”

Robert Jenrick has said he wants to “get migration done” so that politicians can talk about other issues.

The former immigration minister told reporters after a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference that if he were Tory leader and the party came back to government, he would leave the ECHR as soon as possible without a referendum.

The leadership hopeful said he did not accept that his stance on leaving the ECHR would split his party.

Mr Jenrick is advocating for a cap on legal migration in the tens of thousands or fewer and for a stronger version of the Rwanda policy.

He added: “If we have that cap, then we can stop talking about migration. I want to get migration done. This is a running sword in British politics.

“It’s important that we settle this by having serious answers to these challenges. Then we can talk about all the other issues that the public wants us to be discussing, like the economy and the NHS.”

Robert Jenrick has warned that it is a “mark of shame on the party that we have gone backwards” in the number of female MPs in the Tory party, Millie Cooke reports from the conference.

Speaking at a Conservative Women’s Organisation event on the fringes of the Tory conference in Birmingham, Mr Jenrick said the challenges of becoming an MP are “more impactful on a mum with kids than it is for many dads”.

He added: “If we’re going to get more women selected, the party has to be very considerate of that, by listening to candidates about what we can do to support you on that journey.”

Jeremy Hunt said he was concerned that Labour’s messaging on the economy could put people and businesses off from investing in British firms.

The shadow chancellor said: “My worry is that Labour believes its own propaganda and starts taking a whole series of decisions, particularly on things like Capital Gains Tax, which have a massive impact on deterring the investment in the economy that we really need.”

He added: “Even the Labour Party don’t believe it, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this massive row over the winter fuel allowance.”

Speaking on the main stage of the Conservative Party conference, he later said: “When it comes to the big decisions, we need to secure our economic growth, I think people are beginning to wonder whether Labour actually has a plan at all, because we’ve had absolutely nothing in the 12 weeks that they’ve been in office.”

Robert Jenrick has urged the Tories to take inspiration from the recovery of the Conservatives in Canada to regain voters at the next general election.

He told the conference: “And I want to do that. And I take a lot of inspiration from our sister party in Canada, and just before the election was called, I went to meet them, and there you see a party which does not resile from traditional conservative values.

“They campaign on virtually the same issues that I do, immigration, lower taxes, building homes for young people, crime – we would probably add in the NHS – but similar issues.

“But through great social media, really good communication, they’re able to explain them to a broad audience of people, including younger people, and they are now beating super woke Justin Trudeau with the 20-somethings, the 30-somethings, the 40-somethings, and appear to be on the cusp of winning an election.”

The Tory leadership hopeful has said that the Conservative Women’s Organisation (CWO) is the world’s oldest female political organisation linked to a party.

He told the conference that he refuses to talk about men’s issues and women’s issues, but acknowledged that there are things the Tories should do to appeal to women.

Mr Jenrick also criticised Rishi Sunak’s approach on migration and the his administration’s plan of lowering taxes.