Sunak defends Rwanda policy amid Tory revolt
Rishi Sunak attempted to claw back authority today after Robert Jenrick’s resignation over the government’s Rwanda policy prompted speculation as to whether it will still be Sunak leading the Conservatives into the general election.
In a hastily arranged press conference, Sunak insisted that immigration minister Jenrick – his (former) friend and political ally – was “simply not right” that the Rwanda legislation “doesn’t go far enough”. He labelled his reworked bill – designed to resurrect the scheme after it was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court last month – the “toughest immigration law ever” which “blocks every single reason that has ever been used to prevent flights”.
The new bill compels judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act. However many on the Tory right – including Sunak’s vengeful former home secretary Suella Braverman – want the bill to set aside European human rights laws altogether.
Ironically, given that Rwanda’s poor human rights record is the reason the scheme is failing in the first place, the Rwandan government is now the one stopping Sunak from caving into the demands of Braverman and Co. According to the PM, if he went any further in disregarding human rights law in the legislation, Rwanda has said it would pull out of the scheme altogether.
Sunak attempted to address a key concern of the Tory right by vowing “not to allow a foreign court to block flights”.
Though his reference to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is unlikely to satisfy critics who say the bill doesn’t do enough to prevent the possibility of future legal challenges.
The PM conceded that the ECHR would still be able to challenge deportations. If Strasbourg did intervene, he would “do what is necessary” to stop it from blocking flights, he added, without elaborating any further on this vague attempt to talk tough.
While the nature of the revolt in his own ranks this week has forced Sunak to make a case that the revamped Rwanda bill is tough enough, there will be many others in parliament, even in Tory flanks, with the opposite concern.
In last month’s Supreme Court ruling, five justices unanimously ruled that Rwanda was not a “safe” country, providing documented evidence about injustices in its asylum system to back up their position.
Some MPs from the One Nation Group, the more centrist conservative wing, are understood to be concerned that Sunak’s new bill has sought to get round this by giving ministers the power to overrule courts by simply allowing Parliament to declare Rwanda to be “conclusively” safe – while simultaneously banning British judges from intervening to say otherwise.
A second reading vote on the emergency Rwanda bill is expected to take place in the Commons on Tuesday, meaning Sunak has an anxious few days ahead of him.
The embattled PM will be doing all he can between now and then to shore up support. The fact that he made it clear today that Tuesday’s vote will not be treated as a confidence vote is telling. Allowing MPs to defy him without having the Conservative whip withdrawn takes some pressure off Sunak, amid mounting speculation that a rebellion could force him to call an early general election. It’s still early days
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