𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Police will be given new powers to tackle travellers wreaking havoc in towns and villages across Britain if the Conservatives win the next election.

Kemi Badenoch warned that the European Convention on Human Rights has thwarted ministers from stopping groups from repeatedly returning to green spaces.

And communities are being forced to “accept criminality” that other groups “simply wouldn’t get away with”.

The Tories accused human rights judges of blocking new rules introduced in 2022 to prevent travellers from returning to unauthorised sites within 12 months.

They accused Labour of “capitulating to Strasbourg’s diktats” by “opting for just a three-month no-return period”.

But Mrs Badenoch has vowed to go much further and introduce indefinite bans and new criminal offences.

She said: “For years, towns and villages across Britain have been forced to accept criminality in their communities, but each measure we have used to deal with illegal traveller sites has fallen foul of the ECHR.

“That is why I have serious plans to end the power of foreign courts to frustrate the will of Parliament, and to back our police with the powers and resources they need.

“The Conservatives are the only party who are doing the proper work needed to leave the ECHR, take back our streets, and stand up for the rule of law. We will get Britain working again.”

The Conservatives have vowed to give police the powers to ban travellers from returning to a patch of land “indefinitely”.

They will also make it a criminal offence to trespass with a vehicle after being ordered to leave.

And Mrs Badenoch’s party will scrap the ban on removing trespassing travellers if no alternative site is available.

The Tories believe they will be able to go further than they proposed whilst they were in Government because they will not be restricted by the ECHR.

Judges in 2024 ruled that previous plans breached Article 14 of the convention, which prohibits discrimination based on grounds such as sex, race, religion, or political opinion.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “All too often, police lack the power to act decisively against travellers who break the law.

“By leaving the ECHR and scrapping the Human Rights Act, we will be able to empower our police to do their job more effectively, ensuring equality before the law for all.

“We will support these plans by hiring 10,000 more police officers, ensuring criminality does not go unchecked, and lawbreakers do not go unpunished. Labour wants to ignore the problem – we have the plan to fix it.”

Shadow Policing Minister Matt Vickers said: “Communities deserve swift, decisive action when the law is broken by travellers.

“Our plan will give police the clarity and backing they need to act to ensure that our communities and property rights are protected, backed by our wider plan to recruit 10,000 more police officers.”