Rishi Sunak is considering taking a hard-line approach on Rwanda to secure deportation flights before the next election, it has been reported.
The prime minister is reportedly leaning towards ensuring his new treaty with the African nation is exempt from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) without withdrawing from the convention altogether.
The approach is favoured by immigration minister Robert Jenrick, a flag-bearer for the Tory right now that Suella Braverman has been sacked as home secretary.
Mr Jenrick met the PM on Wednesday to finalise a solution which will get planes to Rwanda in the air after the deportation scheme was struck down in the Supreme Court.
Disapplying the ECHR has been dubbed the “full-fat” option, backed by Ms Braverman and the New Conservative group of more than 30 right-wing Tory MPs.
Mr Sunak is “leaning towards” the option, according to the Daily Telegraph, but is some way from agreeing to it.
He is also considering a so-called semi-skimmed option which would only disapply the UK’s Human Rights Act for asylum seekers. A No10 source said: “Nothing is decided, everything is still on the table.”
Mr Sunak has said the Government is “finalising” legislation to push through the “vital” Rwanda asylum plan and that his “patience is worn thin” by delays.
The prime minister met Rwandan president Paul Kagame on the sidelines of the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai, although Downing Street said it was a “brush-by” that lasted no more than 10 minutes.
Mr Sunak declined to say how much more money he would spend to get the scheme off the ground, but stressed he is eager to “finish the job” after the plan to send some asylum seekers on a one-way trip to the African nation was ruled unlawful.
His plan to save the policy involves signing a new treaty with Kigali and the introduction of emergency legislation allowing Parliament to deem the scheme safe, but this has been delayed.
But senior British diplomats are said to have privately told the Foreign Office that the Rwandan government’s commitment to the scheme cannot be taken for granted.
The Independent understands that the Rwandan government believes its own laws are robust enough to make the treaty work – and are uneasy about the idea of any infringement upon their sovereignty.
A Rwandan government source said the country was still “committed” to the agreement and were working with the UK to formalise elements of the memorandum of understanding signed in 2022 within a new treaty.
No 10 had said in the hours after the 15 November Supreme Court defeat of its Rwanda scheme that the treaty would be laid before Parliament in the “coming days” so deportation flights could take off “as soon as possible”.
It has since been more than two weeks, with a bill expected before Christmas and potentially as early as next week.
