Rishi Sunak, the UK Prime Minister vowed to end the political and legal ‘merry-go-round’ on Rwanda migrant deportation flights tonight after Supreme Court judges dramatically ruled the plan was illegal.
At a press conference in No10, the PM unveiled his response to the judicial block, pledging a new treaty with the East African country and emergency legislation allowing Parliament to declare that it is safe for asylum seekers.
And in a nod to the fury of the Tory Right he insisted if that failed he is ready to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights rather than let ‘foreign courts’ stand in the way of action.
Planes should start leaving for Rwanda next Spring, he said – although he would not guarantee the timetable. That would potentially be just months before a general election.
‘Let me tell everyone now – I will not allow a foreign court to block these flights,’ Mr Sunak said.
‘If the Strasbourg Court chooses to intervene against the express wishes of Parliament I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to get flights off.
‘I will not take the easy way out.’
Mr Sunak said he ‘shared the frustrations’ of Tory MPs who have been urging him to water down human rights rules or simply ignore the Supreme Court.
The premier said he disagreed with the decision, but ‘respected’ it.
He said once Parliament approved a new Treaty that will guarantee people sent to Rwanda are not returned to danger in their country of origin that must be the end of the matter. He warned that Brits’ ‘patience has worn thin’ with the failure to tackle the Channel boat situation.
The comments were immediately dismissed by Suella Braverman’s allies as just another version of the previous strategy.
In a statement, New Conservative co-chairmen Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates said: ‘The Bill must disapply the Human Rights Act and … restate the power of government to disregard interim rulings from Strasbourg.
‘We have no time left. This Bill – which must come to Parliament within weeks – must have everything in it to ensure that flights are in the air within months.’
It came after the Supreme Court concluded unanimously that the scheme to deport arrivals immediately would break the law. It is a crushing blow to the government, which has already handed Rwanda £140million.
The decision – which ministers had feared for weeks was coming – immediately sparked Tory demands to loosen protections under the ECHR so the policy can go ahead.
However, critics pointed out the judgment suggested it would have been struck out on other grounds anyway. The case hinged on whether asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would be at ‘real risk’ of being returned to their country of origin and subject to mistreatment.
Tory Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson said the Government should simply ‘ignore the laws’ and ‘just put the planes in the air now and send them to Rwanda’.
Boris Johnson urged Mr Sunak to get Parliament to designate Rwanda a ‘safe’ country.
He highlighted a Daily Mail column in which he argued that the Asylum and Immigration Act 2004 include powers to make the change.
