Rwanda policy is surely Rishi Sunak’s worst inheritance from Boris Johnson era

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Good morning. The UK government has managed a victory, of sorts, at the High Court. Some thoughts on why it isn’t quite all as it appears and what comes next in today’s note.

Inside Politics is edited by Georgina Quach. Follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenkb and please send gossip, thoughts and feedback to insidepolitics@ft.com.

Dream on

Victory for the British government at the High Court? Well, sort of. Campaigners had hoped that the court would rule that the UK government’s Rwanda policy was unlawful — instead, the judges have ruled that the UK’s agreement with the Rwandan government violates neither the 1998 Human Rights Act or the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. This means people who have arrived “illegally” in Britain since January 2022 are eligible for removal to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be determined.

There’s an important “but” here, though. Judges also ruled that the Home Office failed to consider the personal circumstances of the eight individuals who faced removal earlier this year. That opens up potential for further legal battles and means that the government’s hope for the Rwanda policy — that it will bring about the swift removal of anyone coming to the UK via a small boat — remains a pipe dream.

Of course, this is in large part a policy that is intended to act as a “vice signal”: it doesn’t matter so much that it works, but that it signals, through the howls of disapproval, that the Conservatives are serious about bringing an end to the Channel crossing. Is it working on that metric?

Not really, no. The Labour party enjoys a healthy lead over the Conservatives in every poll when it comes to the question of which party is most trusted on immigration. (And indeed, the Labour party enjoys a healthy lead over the Conservatives full stop.)

Of all the unhelpful inheritances Rishi Sunak has received from Boris Johnson, the Rwanda policy is surely the worst. It means that the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, cannot speak credibly about the accusations being levelled at Rwanda by its neighbours. It makes the government look cruel to liberal voters and inept to authoritarian ones. Sunak can’t abandon it without handing a gift to his internal opponents and to the likes of Nigel Farage, who already hope that the prime minister’s leadership presents an opportunity to them.

Other than “invent time travel”, as far as immigration is concerned, Sunak is stuck on this course now: one that has little to recommend it either in policy or political terms.

One consequence of that is that the Conservative party’s gradual slide into full-blown opposition to the 1998 Human Rights act and the UK’s membership of the European Court of Human Rights is going to continue. While the Rwanda agreement has not been declared to be incompatible with the UK government’s human rights obligations, you can be near-certain that many of the individual people seeking to avoid deportation to Rwanda will succeed thanks to those obligations.

Now try this

As we are reaching the end of the year, I thought we’d use this space to look back on some of my favourite things of the year. I had planned to do a list of my favourite films of the year, but once I got to number 20 I thought that seemed somewhat excessive. Here, instead, are what I think my favourite film of a particular type this year was, starting with my favourite stupid blockbuster.

This is usually a title that goes to a Marvel film, as they have consistently been the best-in-class for a good, disposable apt-for-popcorn-munching film. But this year’s offering has, I would say, been outclassed. For a long time — and my family-friendly pick for this choice — I expected that Jurassic World: Dominion would have been my winner here. This film is really stupid: Chris Pratt’s character now seems to be some kind of dinosaur Jedi, two of the big dinosaurs have some kind of grudge, and the human baddy’s plan makes no sense at all. It shouldn’t work, but somehow does. (For a contrary view, try Danny Leigh, who did not like it at all.)

But my favourite stupid film — be warned, it is incredibly, pointlessly gory at points — is Violent Night, a film in which Santa Claus has to recover the spirit of his violent, bad boy youth (I promise I am not joking or exaggerating here) in order to save a wealthy family from a gang of burglars. The most accidentally funny film I watched this year. Catch it in cinemas if you can, or enjoy it with friends and a lot of drinks at home.

Tomorrow I’ll reveal my favourite romcom of the year.

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