Rishi Sunak refuses to say if Rwanda migrant flights will take off this year as PM bats away Tory MPs’ calls for a ‘Plan B’ if courts continue to block ‘right and fair’ asylum scheme
- The PM says he’s ‘confident in our case’ as he prepares for a Supreme Court fight
Rishi Sunak today failed to say if the first migrant flights to Rwanda would take off this year following the latest legal block on the planned asylum scheme.
The Prime Minister suffered a huge blow to his ‘stop the boats’ pledge yesterday when Court of Appeal judges ruled the deportation deal with the African country was unlawful.
The decision has led to some Tory MPs to demand a ‘Plan B’ to the Rwanda scheme, if the courts continue to block it.
But, speaking at a Downing Street press conference this afternoon, Mr Sunak appeared to bat away those calls and insisted he was ‘confident’ the Government would ultimately see victory in the Supreme Court.
Mr Sunak said he ‘respects’ the Court of Appeal’s ruling but ‘fundamentally disagrees’ with it as he looks to overturn it at the UK’s highest court.
Rishi Sunak today failed to say if the first migrant flights to Rwanda would take off this year following the latest legal block on the planned asylum scheme
The PM believes the possibility of being sent to Rwanda to have an asylum claims processed will deter people from trying to reach the UK using small boats across the Channel
Home Secretary Suella Braverman, pictured with Rwanda President Paul Kagame in March, and the PM are fighting a legal challenge against their migration deal with the African country
The Government was offered some hope yesterday as Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, deemed Rwanda to be a safe third country for asylum seekers.
He was a dissenting voice as the Court of Appeal gave a split decision against the Government.
Two other judges ruled there was a real risk that asylum-seekers sent to Rwanda would be returned to their home country in a possible breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The PM said today: ‘I strongly believe – and the Lord Chief Justice made clear that he agrees with this as well – that the Rwandans have provided all the assurances necessary.
‘There is no real risk that asylum seekers that are relocated under our policy will be wrongly returned to third countries. Rwanda is a safe country.’
Mr Sunak also highlighted how the UN’s refugee agency ‘use Rwanda for their own refugee scheme for Libyan refugees’.
‘Given all of that we’re going to seek permission to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court,’ he added.
‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the policy of this government is very simple.
‘It is your Government and it is not criminal gangs who should decide who comes here. It is a very simple point of view.
‘I’ll do what is necessary to make sure that that happens.’
But Mr Sunak refused to commit to the first migrant flights to Rwanda taking place this year, as he stressed it was ‘a matter for the courts in terms of their timeline’.
Pressed later on whether there was a ‘Plan B’ – such as trying to put in place similar deals with countries other than Rwanda – the PM insisted the Government was ‘confident in our case’.
‘We will seek permission to appeal this case to the Supreme Court and we remain entirely confident that what we’re doing is right,’ he added.
‘And it’s also fair, because there is nothing moral or compassionate by allowing the current system to continue.’
Mr Sunak highlighted how migrants were ‘needlessly dying’ as they try and cross the Channel to Britain after being ‘exploited’ by people-trafficking gangs.
‘If you spend any time with the people who are actually – as I’ve done in the Channel, – picking people up, seeing the conditions that they’re subjected to, seeing what children are subjected to, would find it very hard to justify maintaining this system,’ he said.
The Government has consistently claimed the possibility of being sent to Rwanda on a one-way ticket to have their asylum claims processed will deter people from trying to reach the UK using small boats across the Channel.
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