Rishi Sunak’s attempt to salvage Rwanda’s controversial deportation deal could be blocked by the House of Lords, senior Conservatives fear.
Downing Street is bracing for a tense row with peers over emergency legislation designed to declare Rwanda a “safe” country, despite a Supreme Court warning that there is a risk asylum seekers will be mistreated if sent there.
Two former Conservative attorneys-general have warned that the Prime Minister’s plans for a new deal with Rwanda are likely to “run into trouble” in the House of Lords, posing “serious challenges” to his leading policymaker in delivering on his promise to stop the ships. ” Border crossing. Channel.
Sir Geoffrey Cox and Dominic Grieve also predicted a major battle with international judges, including at the European Court of Human Rights, sparking a potentially seismic conflict between Sunak, who has said he is prepared to defy the courts to get his way, and like-minded Tories. who don’t believe he’ll go far enough.
Both also warned that despite Mr Sunak’s plan to enshrine the new deal with Rwanda in domestic law, problems could still arise in domestic courts if both the deal and accompanying legislation were not “smooth”.
Mr Grieve, who served as foreign secretary as prime minister under new foreign secretary Lord Cameron, said I The government’s approach has been to ignore domestic and international courts, declaring: “Rwanda is safe and we are moving forward.”
“This is unusual and I think they will have problems because they may not get this legislation through the House of Lords at all,” he said.
“Secondly, if they do, I think they will intervene very quickly if there are concerns about Rwandan standards and they will have real problems with our European partners for ignoring or ignoring parts of the ECHR. [European Convention on Human Rights]”
Sir Geoffrey, Theresa May’s attorney general, backed Sunak’s plan and said he might be able to respond “relatively quickly” to the Supreme Court decision.
“The government has a way forward,” the MP said. “But there are significant challenges ahead as the House of Lords will undoubtedly be reluctant to ensure a smooth path to this legislation.
“There will undoubtedly be twists and turns. But the Prime Minister has outlined a coherent and potentially effective way forward.”
Both, meanwhile, warned that problems could still arise despite Mr Sunak’s pledge to end the legal merry-go-round that has kept politics stuck in the courts for a year and a half.
Mr Grieve said: “The courts do not want their jurisdiction to be excluded from deciding the law and you cannot rule out the possibility of the court questioning the legality of the courts’ actions unless the government does so for very important reasons ” “
Sir Geoffrey said the “courts must respect the supremacy of Mr Sunak’s legislation” and theoretically “do not have the power to overturn it”.
But he added: “I’m not saying there are any genius or clever approaches to solving this problem.”
Sir Geoffrey also suggested Mr Sunak may have to be prepared to “go beyond” the UN Refugee Convention, citing the United States’ example in Mexico, if he wants to push his plan through the international courts.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt admitted that “we cannot guarantee” there will be deportation flights to Rwanda next year because “we need to pass legislation… and sign a new international treaty.”
Former Conservative chancellor George Osborne said leaving the ECHR “is now off the table because David Cameron is foreign secretary”.
While acknowledging that Lord Cameron “opposed elements of the ECtHR judgments”, Mr Osborne told the newspaper that Political currency Podcast “I don’t think I would necessarily agree to that extreme (leaving).”
Meanwhile, Home Secretary James Cleverley said he “does not believe” the UK needs to leave the ECHR and backed plans for emergency legislation.
But Mr Cleverly could not deny that he had privately described the policy of deporting migrants arriving illegally in East Africa as “crap”.
Mr Cleverley insisted MPs could ratify the treaty once it is agreed and pass new laws within days.
“The whole process won’t necessarily be completed in a few days, but the parliamentary process itself can happen that quickly,” he told Times Radio.