Suella Braverman: Tories face 'electoral oblivion' if Rwanda bill fails

The Conservative Party faces "electoral oblivion" if the government's Rwanda legislation is "destined to fail", Suella Braverman has warned.

The ex-home secretary told MPs the bill must block all routes of legal challenge to allow flights to take off.

Last month the UK's Supreme Court ruled plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda were unlawful.

The government has promised emergency legislation, designed to address the court's concerns.

On Tuesday, Home Secretary James Cleverly also signed a new treaty with Rwanda. The government hopes the treaty, combined with the new bill, will be enough to allow the Rwanda scheme to go ahead.

The policy, which was first announced by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022, aims to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.

But it has been repeatedly delayed by legal challenges and no asylum seekers have been sent to Rwanda from the UK yet.

• Tory splits emerge ahead of Rwanda migration law

• Why does the UK want to send asylum seekers to Rwanda?

In a personal statement to the House of Commons after she was sacked from her cabinet role last month, Mrs Braverman said she welcomed the decision to introduce emergency legislation but said "we are running out of time".

"The Conservative Party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months if we introduce yet another bill destined to fail," she told MPs.

"Do we fight for sovereignty or do we let our party die?"

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping small boat crossings one of his top priorities ahead of the next general election, which must take place by January 2025.

Mrs Braverman said the bill must deliver on the prime minister's pledge to stop small boat crossings and set out a number of tests she said it must meet to do this.

These included addressing the Supreme Court's concerns about the safety of Rwanda and "blocking off all routes of challenge" to enable flights carrying asylum seekers to the east African country before the next election.

Although Mrs Braverman said she supported leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), she said this was not the only way to stop the boats.

"I accept that the government won't do that and that it is a debate for another day," she added.

Instead she proposed that the bill should override the UK's Human Rights Act, the ECHR and other international law.

"The powers to detain and remove must be exercisable notwithstanding the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Refugee Convention, and all other international law," she said.

She added that Parliament should be prepared to sit over Christmas to pass the bill.

Tory splits

Mrs Braverman was flanked by supporters as she gave her statement but there are splits within the Conservative Party over her proposals.

One senior Tory MP told the BBC her statement "was just the latest performance in the leadership pantomime".

Rather than disregarding human rights law, another option is for the bill to simply declare Rwanda a safe country.

The BBC understands Mr Sunak is hoping to steer a middle course between those options.

The One Nation Caucus, which has a current membership of 106 Tory MPs, called on the prime minister to "think twice before overriding" either the ECHR and HRA.

The group's chairman, former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green said: "Successive Conservative governments have played a vital role in creating and protecting the ECHR as well as the Refugee and Torture conventions."

Another leading member of the group, Matt Warman, said overriding the ECHR was "a red line for a number of Conservatives".

However, Mark Francois, chairman of the right-wing European Research Group (ERG), said it would not back any new legislation that does not "fully respect the sovereignty of Parliament, with unambiguous wording".

Former Minister Sir Simon Clarke said there was "raw anger" among his constituents about migration.

He told the BBC's Politics Live programme: "It cannot be the case that a human rights framework which was set up in the late 1940s, which could never have envisaged a world in which tens of thousands of people were coming to this country illegally and we were unable to deport them, is regarded as so sacrosanct that we can't change it."

The UK's highest court ruled the Rwanda policy was unlawful because there were "substantial grounds" to believe that some of those deported to the country could be sent back to places where they would be unsafe.

The government says its new treaty will address these concerns by ensuring no one is removed by Rwanda to any other country except the UK.

Experts from the UK will also be sent to Rwanda to assist with the processing of asylum decisions.

Home Secretary James Cleverly signed a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday

Since leaving government, Mrs Braverman has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

In a scathing letter following her sacking she accused the PM of "betraying" his promise to do whatever it takes to "stop the boats".

However, in her Commons statement she struck a more conciliatory tone, saying Mr Sunak "should be commended for dedicating more time and toil than any of his predecessors" to the issue.

She added that tougher visa rules announced earlier this week "start to better reflect public frustration on legal migration".

"If we summon the political courage to do what is truly necessary, difficult though it may be, to fight for the British people, we will regain their trust," she said.

"And if the prime minister leads that fight, he has my total support."