Tories realise deportation policy could lose them loyal voters

How many Tory voters do the Conservatives want to deport in their pursuit of anti-immigrant votes?

- James Tapper

The answer may appear obvious, but it took the Conservatives weeks to reach the conclusion that, actually, they did not want to strip millions of law-abiding people of permanent residency in the UK.

For nearly five months, as Reform UK has risen in the polls with an anti-immigration stance, it had been the party's policy to remove a person's right to "indefinite leave to remain" in the UK if they earned less than £38,700, or if they or their dependents claimed any benefit.

The draft "deportation bill", introduced in May, made no distinction between benefits, including the state pension and maternity allowance.

Many of those whose official status is that they have indefinite leave to remain (ILR) can vote in general elections because they are nationals of Commonwealth countries including Australia, India, Jamaica, New Zealand or Pakistan and have the right to live in the UK after five years on a work visa or because their relatives live here. Data on ILR is patchy and doesn't include people granted ILR before 2004, but about 2.8 million people have ILR and Oxford's Migration Observatory estimates that 431,000 are non-EU citizens.