Emergency law to revive Sunak’s Rwanda plan may be rushed through Parliament ‘in days,’ James Cleverly

Emergency legislation to try to revive Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan could be rushed through Parliament within “just a few days,” new Home Secretary James Cleverely said on Thursday.

He told Times Radio: “The process can be a very speedy one.

“It can be measured in sitting days, rather than sitting weeks or sitting months.

“The whole process won’t necessarily be all done and dusted just in a few days but the actual parliamentary process can be that quick.”

Legal experts warn against rushing in new laws, as it can increase the likelihood that they are flawed if they are not properly scrutinised by Parliament.

Mr Sunak can use his Commons majority to force new legislation through but it could be delayed in the Lords.

However, Mr Cleverly believes peers will recognise that dealing with the “small boats” crossings is a “priority of the British people”.

The emergency legislation would seek to declare Rwanda as a safe country after a damning ruling by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The top judges shredded the Government’s Rwanda plan and branded it unlawful.

Ministers sought to play down the scale of the court defeat, as the Prime Minister pledged that he would “not allow a foreign court to block these flights” amid pressure from the Tory right to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Mr Cleverly downplayed that the Government was planning to take such a drastic step, suggesting such talk was a distraction.

He stressed: “Our preferred option is to remain in the ECHR.”

The Supreme Court had made the point “there are a number of international treaties which are relevant” in the Rwanda case.

“This is a distracting conversation,” he added.

“I get it is of interest, legitimate interest, but the point I have made is I, the Prime Minister, the Government, will not be distracted from focusing on what we have been told by the Supreme Court judges needs to be fixed in order to get this out of the way.”

The Home Secretary also distanced the Government from Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson’s suggestion the law should simply be ignored over the Rwanda ruling and planes carrying asylum seekers and economic migrants be ordered to take off for the East African country.

Mr Cleverly emphasised: “I’ve listened to what he said. I disagree with the point he’s made.

“This is how politics works. I don’t always agree with all my friends and colleagues.

“But the simple point is the Prime Minister, I, the Government are clear and unambiguous. We play by the rules.”

He said Mr Anderson was “expressing the frustration that a lot of people feel” but “we are a law-abiding country, a law-abiding government”.

Britain’s five most senior justices unanimously ruled that the Rwanda plans are unlawful because there is a risk that genuine asylum seekers could be forced back to their country of origin by Kigali, and possibly face torture, persecution and even a risk to their life.

Supreme Court president Lord Reed ruled there would be a risk of Rwanda returning genuine asylum seekers to face “ill treatment” in the country they had fled.

He also stressed that the court’s ruling was based on several international treaties not just the ECHR.

The court’s decision came as a serious setback to the Prime Minister’s pledge to “stop the boats”, but he and other ministers insisted that flights could begin by spring next year and crucially before a General Election.

However, both Mr Sunak and Mr Cleverly stopped short of pledging this would definitely happen.

The Supreme Court ruling came after a week that had already seen the Tory right angered by the sacking of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary and a reshuffle that tilted his administration back towards the centre ground.

Mrs Braverman on Wednesday was quick to demand that Mr Sunak introduces laws to block off the ECHR, Human Rights Act and other routes of legal challenge, echoing calls from other right-wing backbenchers.

The Prime Minister, in a Downing Street press conference, set out plans to broker a new treaty with Kigali that will provide a legal guarantee that asylum seekers will not be removed from Rwanda.

“But we need to end the merry-go-round,” he told a Downing Street press conference. “So I’m also announcing today that we will take the extraordinary step of introducing emergency legislation.

“This will enable Parliament to confirm that with our new treaty, Rwanda is safe.”

He said it will also “make clear that we will bring back anyone if ordered to do so by a court”, meaning migrants sent to Kigali could then be brought back to the UK.

Home Office officials have been unable to say what will happen to the asylum seekers who remained in Rwanda after their claims were rejected, if they would not be removed.

Britain is expected to pay Rwanda more money for the new treaty, having already handed over £140 million under the plans that have seen not one asylum seeker removed since it was announced in April 2020.

Mr Sunak’s plan did echo the demand of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who argued that the “only one way to end the legal blockade on Rwanda” was for a law to designate Rwanda a “safe” country.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper accused Mr Sunak of “making more promises and chasing more headlines”.

The shadow home secretary said: “Rishi Sunak just keeps making more promises and chasing more headlines on boats, without ever delivering on the commitments he’s made already.

“Conservative ministers knew what the problems were with the Rwanda scheme 18 months ago – if they thought this was the answer, why didn’t they do it long ago?