Boris Johnson heaps pressure on Rishi Sunak as he urges PM to ignore European judges

Boris Johnson quizzed on political ambitions in November

Boris Johnson has ramped up the pressure on Rishi Sunak after giving his backing to a Bill that would allow him to ignore the European Court of Human Rights. The former Prime Minister is supporting an effort by Conservative backbencher Jonathan Gullis to let the UK ignore rulings from the Strasbourg court.

The ECHR blocked the first removal flight of alleged illegal migrants to Rwanda earlier this year.

Mr Johnson is the latest Tory to give their backing to the Bill after one Conservative MP told Express.co.uk earlier this week that a number of “big name” politicians were “locked in” to back the legislation.

The Bill will be introduced to Parliament this afternoon.

It comes less than 24 hours after Mr Sunak announced his bold plan for tackling illegal immigration.

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Boris Johnson has heaped pressure on Rishi Sunak (Image: GETTY)

The Prime Minister pledged to get a grip on the number of people arriving in Britain without a right to remain, saying “enough was enough”.

He said restarting removal flights to Rwanda was a key part of his five-point plan to tackle the issue.

However, he failed to mention how he would deal with the appeals made in the ECHR.

Priti Patel announced the Rwanda policy when she was Home Secretary. But no planes have so far taken off after legal appeals stopped the first removal flight from leaving.

Ms Patel is backing today’s proposed legislation, with Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries and Tim Loughton among others to put their name to it.

Writing in the Telegraph ahead of today’s Bill being introduced, Mr Gullis said: “It is completely unacceptable that the European Court of Human Rights undermines the will of the British people and elected MPs.

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The former PM is backing a Bill by Jonathan Gullis (Image: PA)

Rishi Sunak outlined his plans to curb illegal migration yesterday (Image: PARLIAMENT.TV)

“I was elected by the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke because my constituents, like many others, were sick and tired of metropolitan elites like Keir Starmer trying to reverse the vote to leave the EU, the largest mandate in British political history, which took back control of our money, borders, and laws.

“Despite this, the supranational quasi-legislative ECHR is still trying to thwart democratic decisions made in our sovereign Parliament.”

In practice, there is little prospect of the bill becoming law but it once again throws a spotlight on the issue.

Mr Johnson’s support for the Bill will also increase pressure on Mr Sunak to put forward his own proposals, similar to those presented by Mr Gullis.

Rishi Sunak announces plans to tackle illegal migration

The ex-Conservative leader has already been a key player in several other backbench revolts that have forced the Prime Minister into U-turns.

Mr Sunak has already made major changes to his landmark housing bill as a result of anger from his own MPs and also caved on demands to allow for onshore wind production.

He said Britons had a “right to be angry” about the scale of illegal immigration in the country.

He said yesterday he would impose new laws to make it “unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally, you should not be able to remain here”.