UK PM Sunak faces leadership test over Rwanda plan

Rishi Sunak is facing a key challenge to his authority over his immigration plans – Copyright AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT

Phil HAZLEWOOD

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday sought to avoid a humiliating defeat for his latest plans to send migrants to Rwanda that have split his ruling Conservative party.  

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill is Sunak’s answer to a unanimous Supreme Court ruling last month that deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda was illegal in international law. 

Interior minister James Cleverly admitted the plans were “novel” and “pushing at the edge of the envelope” but addressed the court’s concerns.

Extreme action was needed to break the business model of “evil people-smuggling gangs” preying on the vulnerable, he told MPs before a debate and crunch vote on the proposals.

“This is lawful, this is fair, this is necessary… This is how we restore confidence in our immigration and take control of our borders,” he said.

The bill is part of wider government action to cut record levels of regular and irregular immigration that is likely to be a key issue at next year’s election.

But by seeking to declare Rwanda safe — despite concerns from human rights monitors — and removing legal challenges to deportation orders, Sunak has triggered deep factional Tory in-fighting not seen since wrangling over what form Brexit should take. 

Hardline right-wingers say the proposals are not tough enough, while more liberal Tories are concerned it could see the UK break international law if the proposals are amended down the line.

Defeat would not only be the first at such an early stage of the parliamentary process since 1986 but also a blow to his authority, just over a year since he became Tory leader.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said he expected the government to win the vote but Sunak should call a general election if he loses.

– Breakfast meeting –

Sunak, who is well behind opposition Labour in the polls, has staked his political reputation on controlling immigration as one of his key policies. 

In a bid to appease opponents Tuesday, he invited potential rebels for breakfast at Downing Street to get them to back the bill — or risk it falling at the first hurdle.

“Take back control” was a mantra for Brexit supporters like Sunak during the 2016 referendum on European Union membership.

But Tory governments have found the reality of policing UK borders since leaving the EU in full in 2021 more problematic.

The UK-Rwanda deportation plan was first announced by Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson last year as a way of dealing with increasing numbers of migrants crossing the Channel from France in small boats.

Starmer called the policy, which has cost £240 million ($300 million) without anyone being sent to Rwanda, a “perfect example” of the “cultural stain that runs through the modern Conservative Party”.

“Not a single person has been sent and even if we did send people, we would pay for their hotels and upkeep. 

“And we’d have to resettle refugees from Rwanda in exchange. That’s the deal that they are voting on today,” he said.

Net migration — the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving — stood at a record 750,000 last year.

Sunak’s government has since announced plans including higher minimum salaries for economic migrants, and restrictions on accompanying family to cut numbers, prompting widespread criticism.

But it also wants to cut asylum applications due to a backlog of cases from “small boats” crossings, blaming them for adding pressure and an estimated £8 million-a-day cost on public services.

One provision of the bill is to house migrants deemed to have arrived illegally in purpose-built detention centres, to ease accommodation pressures.

Just before Cleverly spoke, UK authorities confirmed the sudden death of an asylum seeker on an accommodation barge docked off southwest England.

No further details were immediately available but Care4Calais chief executive Steve Smith accused the government of inflicting further trauma on migrants.