Kemi Badenoch Claims Tories Promising To Leave the ECHR Are Offering "Easy Answers"

Kemi Badenoch accused people who are committed to leaving the European Convention of Human Rights of offering "easy answers" on illegal migration, as she launched her official campaign to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader.

Badenoch, the shadow levelling up secretary, launched her campaign in central London on Monday to an audience including Tory MP supporters like Claire Coutinho  — the former Cabinet minister who announced her support for Badenoch at the event.

High profile Conservative MPs Laura Trott, Alex Burgart and Andrew Griffith were also in attendance to hear Badenoch promise to "renew" the Conservative party.

Asked how she would deal with small boats bringing migrants to the UK, Badenoch said she would not make promises she could not keep and that there was no silver bullet for tackling illegal migration, describing leaving the ECHR as an "easy" answer to a difficult problem.

“People throwing out numbers and saying we’ll leave the ECHR are giving easy answers. That’s how we got in this mess in the first place,” she said.

The remarks are likely to be interpreted as a thinly-veiled swipe at Robert Jenrick, who along with Badenoch is currently seen as a frontrunner in the race to replace Sunak. Jenrick, the Conservative MP for Newak, has already said he would withdraw the UK from the convention as a way of stopping small boats crossing the Channel to reach the UK.

Badenoch and Jenrick are leading the way with public endorsements from Tory MPs at the time of writing. A source on the Jenrick campaign this morning claimed he was "nailed on" to make the final two.

She also said she was more worried by success of independent MPs who put support for Gaza at the heart of their recent General Election campaigns