Suella Braverman’s five-point challenge to Rishi Sunak over Rwanda flights: ex-home secretary triggers new row by demanding new migrant law is exempt from human rights challenges – as ex-minister urges PM to call snap election if Lords block it

• She said to deliver Rwanda deal Government has to ‘end self-deception and spin’

Suella Braverman has deepened the Tory civil war over Rwanda migrant flights by demanding Rishi Sunak’s planned emergency law to get them in the air is exempt from human rights challenges

The hardline former home secretary, who was sacked by Mr Sunak this week, used a newspaper article to accuse him of planning to ‘tinker’ with the law and presented her own five-point plan to get the scheme back on track.

New legislation should be laid in Westminster to ‘exclude all avenues of legal challenge’ so that international obligations, such as the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), are ‘disapplied’, she said.

However the article immediately opened a new front in the battle between Tory moderates and the right of the party over the  £140million scheme that was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Damian Green, who was Theresa May’s deputy when she was PM, branded the idea ‘the most unconservative statement I have ever heard from a Conservative politician’, adding: ‘Giving the state the explicit power to override every legal constraint is what Putin and Xi do. We absolutely cannot go there.’

But Sir Simon Clarke, who was a cabinet minister under Liz Truss, said that half measures won’t work and said that if Mr Sunak’s planned law is held up by the unelected House of Lords he should consider calling an immediate election to give him a mandate to push it into law.

However, that would represent a high-risk strategy with the Tories around 20 points behind Labour in most polls. 

The hardline former home secretary, who was sacked by Mr Sunak this week, used a newspaper article to accuse him of planning to ‘tinker’ with the law and presented her own five-point plan to get the scheme back on track.

New legislation should be laid in Westminster to ‘exclude all avenues of legal challenge’ so that international obligations, such as the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), are ‘disapplied’, she said. 

Sir Simon Clarke, who was a cabinet minister under Liz Truss, said that half measures won’t work and said that if Mr Sunak’s planned law is held up by the unelected House of Lords he should consider calling an immediate election to give him a mandate to push it into law.

Members of the House of Lords, last night vowed to block Rishi Sunak in his efforts to tackle the crisis head-on by reviving the stalled Rwanda flights plan. 

Before they had even seen it, senior peers said they would vote down the emergency legislation promised by the Prime Minister on Wednesday night.

Mr Sunak wants to declare the east African country a safe destination for asylum seekers and so assuage concerns set out in this week’s highly damaging Supreme Court verdict.

READ MORE: Moment dinghy filled with migrants almost disappears beneath the waves before being escorted into British waters by French boats – as Tories warn Rishi he ‘can’t afford to fail’ in his bid to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

A stalemate now looms, with the legislation going back and forth between the Commons, where the Government has a majority, and the Lords, where it does not. 

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Tory former minister, said: ‘If the unelected parts of the constitution thwart the will of the British people, that creates a problem.

‘Dealing with migration was a manifesto commitment which the Lords must remember. Their role is to scrutinise legislation, not to oppose fundamental policy.’

Fellow Conservative MP Sir Simon added: ‘Suella sets out clear and rigorous tests for new legislation on small boats. We should be crystal clear: half measures won’t work. We need the legislation that is brought forward to be truly effective, and if the Lords block it – let’s take it to the country.’

Writing in the Telegraph, Mrs Braverman said Sunak’s Plan B will not work before the election comes around, because it is simply a ‘tweaked version of the failed Plan A’ that would have to go through a lengthy process via the courts again.

She outlined a five-step plan that she thinks will see migrant flights to Rwanda set off soon:

• Address safety concerns for migrants brought to Rwanda by taking steps to improve the country’s asylum system to verify its safety for removals
• New plan should exclude ‘all avenues of legal challenge’ so flights can set off before next election without facing lengthy court battles. This would exclude them from the ‘entirety’ of domestic and European human rights laws
• There should be a time limit for migrants arriving in the UK illegally so they can be ‘removed’ to Rwanda as quickly as possible in a ‘streamlined’ process
• Illegal migrants should be detained until they are flown to Rwanda and all legal challenges to this detention should be excluded to not ‘burden’ the courts
• Amended act should be introduced within the next month before Christmas so members can be recalled to debate it over the holiday recess period (December 19 to January 8)

She added that after Sunak took the first step by saying he would introduce emergency legislation, he would have to follow up by urging MPs and peers to make a decision.

They would have to decide between ‘properly’ controlling illegal immigration via boat arrivals and telling the British public they would have to accept the increasing numbers of illegal migrants due to the overpowering international law.

This comes after ministers have admitted that the Tories will lose the next election unless Sunak can get the Rwanda flights going by Spring.

Members of the unelected House of Lords have vowed to block Rishi Sunak in his efforts to tackle the crisis head-on by reviving the stalled Rwanda flights plan

A group of migrants are pictured on a dinghy crossing the English Channel in rough conditions yesterday

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick warned there is no ‘path to victory’ if the PM cannot show voters he has kept his vow to ‘Stop the Boats’.

But Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said last night be could not guarantee the flights would take off before the next election, and Transport Secretary Mark Harper this morning branded it something the government was ‘aiming’ to do.

Former Home Office permanent secretary Sir David Normington said he would not advise the Government to remove the right of asylum seekers to appeal against deportation to Rwanda.

Asked what he would advise the Home Secretary to do following the Government’s defeat in the Supreme Court over it’s Rwanda proposal, the former civil servant told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: ‘I certainly wouldn’t advise them to want to try to use Parliament to set aside the law, to override it.

‘Suella Braverman is right, in one way, that it is going to be very, very difficult to get people coming across on boats to Rwanda this side of an election, ‘Sir David said of the former home secretary.

‘I think that anything that is done is going to be subject to legal challenge.

‘Therefore, I think there is no option, myself, if they insist on passing the legislation, to take the cases through the court and to fight the cases. I don’t think that there is a way of stopping appeals.

‘One of the things we keep hearing, and this is Suella Braverman’s latest idea, is that we should remove all appeals, that we should close off all routes.

‘I really don’t think that that is possible. I think in the end the Supreme Court wouldn’t allow that.

‘I’m not a lawyer, but in the end it’s just against all normal rights, isn’t it, to remove the rights of people to go to the courts?’

The stark message came as Conservatives digested the consequences of the Supreme Court ruling that the policy is illegal – and more Channel migrants arrived on the south coast.

A grim poll yesterday underlined the problems for Mr Sunak, showing Labour 27 points ahead.

Sunak, visibly angry, staged a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday evening to lay out his ‘Plan B’ following the ruling.

A new Treaty will be drawn up to assuage concerns asylum seekers deported to Rwanda could be sent back to danger in their country of origin, and emergency legislation will be passed declaring Rwanda ‘safe’.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick warned there is no ‘path to victory’ for the Tories if the PM cannot show voters he has kept his vow to ‘Stop the Boats’

The premier warned that once those things had been achieved he would not tolerate blocking by ‘foreign courts’, insisting leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is on the table.

However, in a round of interviews yesterday morning Home Secretary James Cleverly acknowledged that Mr Sunak’s ambition of getting flights going by Spring is dependent on ‘circumstances’. 

There are fears of legal challenges and delaying tactics by peers.

Meanwhile senior Tories have urged their colleagues to stop talking about leadership challenges and get behind Sunak. 

Sources on the Tory Right indicated that Mrs Braverman and her supporters plan to step up their attacks on the Government as she tries to build backing as a precursor for a leadership bid.

Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson yesterday said talk of a leadership contest was ‘absolute nonsense’.

Under party rules, 53 Tory MPs must call for a contest.

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