UK PM defends controversial Rwanda immigration plan amid political storm
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday insisted his government's latest immigration plan will work, as the issue threatened to split his ruling Conservative party.
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"This bill will work. We will get flights off the ground," Rishi Sunak said of the proposal to deport migrants to Rwanda to cut record highs of regular and irregular migration.
UK leader Rishi Sunak defiantly insisted on Thursday that his latest immigration plan will work, as the issue threatened to tear apart his ruling Conservatives, putting his premiership in jeopardy.
Sunak came out fighting after his government's latest attempt to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda sparked the resignation of his immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
Jenrick said in his resignation letter that the proposals in the emergency legislation were not strong enough and represented a "triumph of hope over experience".
Battleground
His ex-interior minister Suella Braverman also said the law was destined to fail, and urged Sunak to change course on immigration – a major political battleground in next year's expected general election.
At a hastily convened news conference in Downing Street, the prime minister sought to appease right-wing Tories who want him to withdraw Britain from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), to stop courts blocking removals.
He also denied that a vote on the Rwanda legislation expected in parliament next week would amount to a confidence vote on his leadership.
"This bill blocks every single reason that has ever been used to prevent flights to Rwanda from taking off," Sunak told reporters.
"The only extremely narrow exception will be if you can prove with credible and compelling evidence that you specifically have a real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm."
Stop the boats
The bill – drawn up after Supreme Court judges last month ruled the deportation plan was illegal as Rwanda was not a safe country – could be voted on by MPs for the first time on Tuesday.
It compels judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and proposes giving UK ministers powers to disregard sections of human rights legislation.
The proposals have sparked fresh concerns from opposition parties and human rights groups while Rwanda warned it would withdraw from a bilateral treaty signed only on Tuesday if the UK does not respect international law.
A feisty Sunak asserted the primacy of the UK parliament on the issue and also said he would not allow a "foreign court" to dictate what Britain could do.
"This bill will work... we will get flights off the ground, we will deter illegal migrants from coming here and we will finally stop the boats," he added.
Campaign promises
The issue is widening schisms in an already heavily fractured Tory party that has served up four prime ministers in just over four years.
The divisions between right-wingers and moderates have worsened since Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, largely on a promise to "take back control" of its borders.
Braverman, sacked by Sunak last month after several incendiary comments, has warned that the Tories face "electoral oblivion" if the Rwanda bill fails.
"You can't tweak at this problem. We can't do half measures. We have to totally exclude international law – the (UN) Refugee Convention, other broader avenues of legal challenge," Braverman told BBC radio.
The former attorney general has become the cheerleader of the Tory right and is thought to be positioning herself as a future party leader if Sunak loses the election.
"We've made the promise, the prime minister made the promise to stop the boats at the beginning of the year. We now need to deliver on that pledge."
"That's how we will win the next general election," Braverman said.
Almost 30,000 irregular migrants have crossed the Channel from northern France in rudimentary vessels this year.
(with AFP)
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