Home secretary James Cleverly has signed a new treaty with Rwanda in a bid to rescue Rishi Sunak’s thwarted deportation plan.
Emergency legislation is also planned soon, as Mr Sunak tries to assert that Rwanda is a safe country to send migrants arriving on small boats.
But senior Tories on the right are plotting a rebellion and are pushing the PM to opt out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – warning that it’s “three strikes and you’re out” after previous attempts to get Rwanda flights started failed.
The Independent understands a group of around 35 MPs in the hardline New Conservatives group reportedly met with other colleagues on the right on Monday night to discuss whether to vote against Mr Sunak’s legislation if it is not deemed tough enough.
It poses a real threat to Mr Sunak’s plans – since only around 25 to 30 Tory MPs would be needed to vote with the opposition to defeat his ‘plan B’ legislation.
Mr Cleverly travelled to Kigali on Tuesday, as the PM attempts to make his plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda legally sound after the Supreme Court’s ruling against the policy.
Legal experts and charities believe the attempt to get flights started before the 2024 election will fail – with the government’s own lawyers said to be pessimistic about efforts to get around human rights law.
Mr Cleverly, who met his counterpart Vincent Biruta to sign the treaty, hopes the upgraded agreement, which gives it the status of international law, will address the problems that led the UK’s highest court to rule the “offshoring” deportation scheme unlawful.
But in Kigali, Mr Cleverly could not guarantee the first flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda will take off in the spring. as the government aims.
James Cleverly meets British High Commissioner to Rwanda, Omar Daair
The home secretary said: “We want to see this part of our wider migration plan up and running as quickly as possible. We feel very strongly this treaty addresses all of the issues of their lordships in the Supreme Court.”
He said he could not see any credible reason” to question Rwanda’s track record, adding the planned new domestic legislation would come “soon”.
UK lawyers are to be sent to Rwanda to help process claims and ensure appeals are granted correctly. But the Kigali government is unlikely to accept any arrangement which would look like colonial-style legal interference.
Ministers said the new treaty would ensure those relocated to Rwanda are not at risk of being sent back to countries they have fled – an act known as refoulement – including through a new appeal body.
An independent monitoring committee will assess the processing of asylum claims and the treatment and support for individuals for up to 5 years. It will also establish a new whistleblowing system to allow asylum seekers sent to Rwanda to lodge confidential complaints.
James Cleverly and Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta
John Hayes MP, sacked home secretary Suella Braverman’s mentor, is demanding that the Tory leader opt out of the ECHR in its emergency Rwanda legislation.
“We need severe measures. It important to get those flights off to Rwanda – so we need to be really tough,” the leader of the Tories’ Commons Sense Group told The Independent.
Senior Tory Mark Francois also warned Mr Sunak that it could be “three strikes and you’re out” – urging the PM to to ignore the ECHR in the emergency Rwanda legislation. He told GB News: “Rishi promised to stop the boats but … he hasn’t has he? We’ve had two goes before. Now it’s three strikes and you’re out”.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick claimed that he is confident Rwanda flights will take off before the general election – as he described illegal migrants as having “broken into” the UK.
The Supreme Court ruling has a major impact on Rishi Sunak’s promise to ‘stop the boats’
The hardline cabinet minister said “it’s profoundly wrong” for people to be entering the UK illegally on small boats, telling Sky News: “If you or I crossed an international border, or literally broke into another country, we would expect to be treated very seriously.”
Mr Jenrick said the emergency legislation would be set out in parliament “shortly” after Mr Cleverly signs the new treaty. However, senior civil servants at the Home Office are said to have warned No 10 that its Rwanda legislation is destined to fail.
Government lawyers are reportedly refusing to sanction the most draconian version, that would opt out of the ECHR by using a “notwithstanding” clause to direct UK judges to ignore it in asylum cases.
Tory moderate Sir Robert Buckland warned that opting out of the ECHR would be “foolish and rash” and would endanger the Good Friday Agreement. He told the BBC it would be “a very un-Conservative step”.
Sacked home secretary Suella Braverman visisted Rwanda in April
The Law Society’s president Nick Emmerson said: “The suggestion of stationing British lawyers in Rwanda implies a lack of confidence in how cases would be handled there …. The government needs to admit the scheme is likely beyond repair.”
The Freedom from Torture campaign group said the it was “shameful” to strike a new treaty with Rwanda after the Supreme Court ruled the scheme unlawful. “No amount of tinkering will change the fundamental fact that this ‘cash for humans’ deal is immoral … it needs to be shelved once and for all,” they said.
Former Boris Johnson adviser Dominic Cummings said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the Rwanda “trick” was never supposed to happen. “But because Tory-SW1 world is so insane, Boris’s trick to divert them has actually worked far better than he planned.”
There has been speculation that Rwanda is pushing for more money on top of the £140m already committed. The Sunday Times reported that Kigali is to be given a £15m top-up payment. But No 10 has insisted there had been no demand for extra money from Rwanda.
It comes as a new poll Redfield & Wilton Strategies found that more people who voted for the Tories in 2019 plan to support Reform UK than Labour. Some 15 per cent plan to ditch the Conservatives for the hard right party, while only 13 per cent will go to Labour, the survey found.
In a bid to cut record-high net migration, Mr Cleverly increased the salary threshold for foreign workers from £26,200 to £38,700 as part of a package set to come into force in April.
The measures announced on Monday also banned overseas social care staff from bringing dependants to the UK and the rule allowing the most-needed professions to be hired at 20 per cent below the going rate would also be scrapped.
Mr Jenrick has said more measures could be required to bring down legal migration. “You’re right to say that more things may need to be done, but without question this is a big step forward,” he told GB News on Tuesday.
In remarks sure to raise eyebrows, the immigration minister also said there would be “merits” to introducing an annual, “Australia-style” cap on net migration – a move demanded by Ms Braverman.
