TRANSCRIPT
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has quelled a Conservative Party rebellion and got his stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda through the House of Commons.
The bill now goes to the unelected House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber, where it faces more opposition where Mr Sunak’s Conservatives do not have a majority.
The Lords can delay and amend legislation but ultimately can’t overrule the elected House of Commons or the Supreme Court.
In November of last year, the Court ruled that the government's 'Rwanda Policy' is unlawful.
Sir Simon Clarke is the Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland.
He doesn't see the bill surviving the courts or the upcoming elections.
“The Prime Minister has confirmed the general election is likely to be held in the latter half of this year. By that time, there will have been, I'm afraid, a contact between this bill and the reality of our court system. And I don't think the outcome will be a pretty one. There will have been time for it to be tested and I am afraid, there will be time for it to fail. We are at the limits of the of the tenable when it comes to the feelings of the British public and if the Labour Party win the general election that will be held later this year. I freely admit the polling at the moment suggests that they will,in large part because of the frustration frankly, the British public feel about this issue.”
The Rwanda policy is key to Mr Sunak’s pledge to stop the boats bringing unauthorised migrants to the U-K across the English Channel from France.
For those crossing the English Channel heading for Britain from France, the risk of ending up in Rwanda, is meant to be a deterrent.
Mr Sunak says it and other policies are working.
“We have managed now, because of our actions, to reduce the number of people coming here by over a third last year, remove over 20,000 people from this country back to their home countries, carried out 70 per cent more illegal enforcement raids, arrested hundreds of people, closed down thousands of bank accounts and processed over 100,000 cases - the biggest number in over 20 years, Mr. Speaker.”
But he struggles to get even one person deported to Rwanda.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had this to say.
“Mr. Speaker, what a farce. Today and yesterday, have been just another day of Tory chaos and carnage. A Prime Minister with no grip, while the British taxpayer is continually forced to pay the price. Former Tory cabinet ministers, deputy chairs on all sides queuing up to tell us is a bad bill. It won't work. It won't protect our borders. It won't comply with international law. It it's fatally flawed. The only thing the Tories all seem to agree on, is that the scheme is failing. The law won't solve it and the Prime Minister is failing too, and they know it.”
And this.
“This £400 million Rwanda scheme for a few hundred people is like the Emperor's New Clothes and the Prime Minister and his immigration ministers have been desperately spinning the invisible thread but we can all see through it. The Home Secretary is just wandering naked round this chamber, waving a little treaty as a fig leaf to hide his modesty behind. I admit he doesn't have much modesty to hide.”
British leader of the opposition Labour Party Keir Starmer thinks the Rwanda policy is just a waste of time and money.
“Only this government could waste hundreds of millions of pounds on a removals policy that doesn't remove anyone. Only this government could claim that it's going to get flights off the ground, only to discover they couldn't find a plane. Only this government could sign a removal deal with Rwanda, only to end up taking people from Rwanda, to here (UK).”
Rwanda's president Paul Kagame has now been waiting since April of 2022 to receive the first flights of deportees.
The first deportation flight to Rwanda was halted by the European Court of Human Rights in June of 2022 due to concerns over the safety and human rights of the deportees.
One of the main concerns is that Rwanda could then deport them to the country they fled.
President Kagame says efforts to implement the plan cannot drag on any longer.
He has offered to refund the UK the £140 million it paid under the deal and scrap it altogether.
