Rishi Sunak has insisted he will “ignore” international law in order to ensure asylum seekers get deported to Rwanda.
The prime minister managed to get his controversial policy through its latest parliamentary stage last night after days of rebellions from Conservative MPs, who want to see the bill toughened up.
But despite two rebel sources telling Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby that ‘no confidence’ letters had now been submitted over his leadership, he insisted his party was “completely united in wanting to stop the boats”.
Mr Sunak also claimed his plan to stop small boat crossings in the Channel was “working” – despite government figures showing a further 358 asylum seekers arrived in the UK on Wednesday.
Politics live: Sunak warns peers not to ‘frustrate will of the people’
Government legal advice states that failing to comply with so-called section 39 orders from European courts – used previously to stop deportation flights taking off before additional court hearings – would be a breach of international law.
Rule 39 orders are issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on an exceptional basis, where there is a “real risk of serious and irreversible harm”.
Asked a press conference whether he would be willing to ignore such rulings, Mr Sunak said: “I’ve been crystal clear repeatedly that I won’t let a foreign court stop us from getting flights off and getting this deterrent up and running.
“The bill specifically contains a power that makes clear that ministers are the ones that make these decisions. Parliament has supported that.
“[The bill also] makes it perfectly clear that the domestic courts should respect that decision.”
He added: “I would not have put that clause in the bill if I was not prepared to use it. So, look, if you’re asking me are there circumstances in which I will ignore rule 39, then answer is clearly yes.”
The prime minister also said he was “proud of the progress” the government had made on tackling small boat crossings, and claimed his plan was “working” – albeit admitting there was “not one single silver bullet that will fix it”.
But shortly after the press conference, the latest statistics showed 358 people in eight boats had made the dangerous journey to the UK shore alone on Tuesday, bring the total for 2024 so far to 621.
The controversial Rwanda bill is designed to send asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats to the African nation, and act as a deterrent to others from making Channel crossings.
Around 60 Tory MPs defied the government by voting for amendments to toughen up the law – including proposals to limit appeals and stop interventions against deportation flights from international courts.
But none of the changes were approved in the Commons, and when it came to a vote on the bill in its entirety, only 11 Conservatives chose to rebel.
However, Mr Sunak is not out of the woods yet, with Tory rebel sources telling Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby that “several” MPs had submitted no confidence letters in the prime minister as a result of the internal row.
Asked by Sky News what his message was to those Tories who had voted down his bill in parliament last night, Mr Sunak said: “The plan is working right across the board. You can see that progress is being made. And our job is to stick to that plan, deliver for the country.”
And he appealed to the House of Lords to “pass this legislation unamended as quickly as possible so that we can then start getting flights up and running”.
