James Cleverly has told MPs more countries ready to take asylum seekers from the UK – so longer as the government’s Rwanda plan succeeds.
The home secretary said Rishi Sunak’s ministers have held talks with several other nations who are “waiting to see what happens with Rwanda”.
At a meeting with disgruntled Tory right-wingers, Mr Cleverly sought to allay concerns about the deportation scheme, which was struck down by the Supreme Court this month.
Having promised to publish an upgraded treaty, from an earlier memorandum of understanding, “within days”, Mr Cleverly has faced growing Tory fury over the stalled plans.
He is also facing a backlash after an interview last weekend in which he said deporting asylum seekers to the African nation was not “the be all and end all” of Tory immigration policy.
On Tuesday night, he sought to assure angry right-wing MPs that the government’s back-up Rwanda plan can be made to work.
He warned around 30 MPs that going too far with the new Rwanda plan – by seeking to override the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – could see it thwarted in the Lords.
And he gave MPs the impression that ministers are now pursuing a so-called “Goldilocks” approach – soft enough to pass through the Lords, but hard enough to act as a deterrent to small boat crossings.
Home secretary James Cleverly under pressure from Tory right
A source close to the home secretary said the “Goldilocks” approach is not the settled approach, and is just one of a number being considered. They also confirmed there are other countries watching both with a view to following in the UK’s footsteps.
“If Rwanda does come off, there could be some other candidate countries so that it would not be just Rwanda,” one of the sympathetic MPs told The Telegraph.
The Times reported that Mr Cleverly claimed European countries such as Germany and Austria were monitoring Britain’s progress and considering similar plans.
Keir Starmer used PMQs to argue that Mr Sunak was facing “open revolt” from Tory MPs – saying and the PM had “lost control of the borders” as well as his own frontbench.
Referring to immigration minister Robert Jenrick’s reported push for a hardline, five-point plan to tackle record net migration, Mr Starmer said: “The immigration minister thinks the prime minister is failing because apparently nobody will listen to his secret plan.”
The Labour leader said: “The former home secretary thinks he is failing because of his magical thinking. The prime minister seems to be the only person on the Tory benches without his own personal immigration plan. Cleary his own side don’t have any faith in him. Why should the public?”
Rishi Sunak under pressure to come up with new Rwanda plan
Senior right-wing Tory John Hayes said Mr Sunak must bring forward “urgent measures” to deal with record legal migration. He also demanded that the emergency Rwanda bill should be in the “exact form” recommended by Mr Jenrick.
Mr Hayes – the Common Sense Group leader, who has claimed Mr Jenrick is a “true believer” – said the net migration figures were a “catastrophe” for everyone apart from “guilt-riven bourgeois liberals”.
In a sign of growing Tory impatience with Mr Sunak, right-winger Simon Clarke tweeted: “We either set out a credible plan on legal immigration, and a really robust emergency bill on Rwanda, or we face more PMQs like that one.”
It comes as cabinet minister Steve Barclay admitted that Mr Sunak’s government needed to “go further, faster” to bring down net migration after the latest figures showed that it hit a record-high of 745,000 last year.
Mr Barclay, a former health secretary, now environment secretary, confirmed restrictions on social care workers’ relatives was being considered by Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly.
“One of the areas where I know the home secretary will want to look is dependants of those coming in to the care sector,” he told Times Radio. “So, there are a range of options.”
