Britain\u2019s ruling Conservative party was in disarray Wednesday after its immigration minister quit over legislation regarding sending migrants to Rwanda as hardliners turned the screw on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK leader\u2019s position looked increasingly vulnerable after Robert Jenrick said he had resigned due to \u201cstrong disagreements with the direction\u201d of the government\u2019s policy on immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bombshell resignation came after Rwanda warned that it would pull out of a treaty to accept migrants if the UK does not respect international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former hardline interior minister Suella Braverman also issued Sunak an ultimatum to get tougher on immigration or face certain wipeout in the next general election, in a torrid day for the British PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenrick resigned after Sunak\u2019s administration published emergency legislation designed to ensure Rwanda is considered a safe country, after UK Supreme Court judges last month deemed that it was not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his resignation letter to the prime minister, Jenrick wrote that the proposed laws were \u201ca triumph of hope over experience\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe stakes for the country are too high for us not to pursue the stronger protections required to end the merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme and negating its intended deterrent,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was seen as a reference to Sunak\u2019s refusal to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill proposes giving ministers powers to disregard sections of the UK Human Rights Act and ECHR when considering deportation cases.
But some right-wing Tories, including Braverman, want Sunak to leave the ECHR altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braverman, sacked last month after a series of outspoken comments, told parliament earlier that the government needed to go further to tackle \u201cmass, uncontrolled, illegal immigration\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among her demands was to block \u201call routes\u201d of legal challenge to deportations to get deportation flights to Rwanda by the time of the poll, which is expected next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has become the cheerleader of the vocal Tory right wing and is thought to be positioning herself as a future leader if Sunak is forced to quit after the nationwide vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tories lag well behind the main opposition Labour party in opinion polls ahead of an election that must be held by January 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braverman, a former attorney general, has called for tougher measures before, and criticised the UN convention on refugees and European human rights legislation for blocking the government\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her latest comments are red meat to fellow firebrands who see having total control over Britain\u2019s borders as the final piece in the Brexit jigsaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Conservative party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months if it introduces yet another bill destined to fail,\u201d she told MPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tories face a stark choice to \u201cfight for sovereignty or let our party die\u201d, she said, adding ominously: \u201cI refuse to sit by and allow us to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Kigali, Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, who signed a new bilateral treaty on migrants with Braverman\u2019s successor James Cleverly on Tuesday, said any breach of global conventions could see Rwanda withdraw from the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Stop the boats\u2019 <\/strong>
\u201cWithout lawful behaviour by the UK, Rwanda would not be able to continue with the Migration and Economic Development Partnership,\u201d he added, referring to the controversial deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleverly insisted in parliament that the UK and Rwanda were \u201cboth completely committed\u201d to the partnership, adding that London\u2019s proposed law put \u201cbeyond legal doubt the safety of Rwanda\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first deportees were due to be sent to Rwanda in June last year but were pulled off a flight at the last minute after a judge at the European Court of Human Rights issued an injunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, their cases \u2014 and the wider legality of the policy \u2014 have been stuck in the courts, hampering Sunak\u2019s pledge to \u201cstop the boats\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 30,000 irregular migrants have crossed the Channel from northern France in rudimentary vessels this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour\u2019s home affairs spokeswoman Yvette Cooper said the UK government was in \u201ctotal chaos\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the desperate dying days of a party ripping itself apart, clearly totally out of ideas, lost any sense of leadership or direction,\u201d she told parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Britain\u2019s ruling Conservative party was in disarray Wednesday after its immigration minister quit over legislation regarding sending migrants to Rwanda as hardliners turned the screw on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The UK leader\u2019s position looked increasingly vulnerable after Robert Jenrick said he had resigned due to \u201cstrong disagreements with the direction\u201d of the government\u2019s policy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[7396,7594],"class_list":["post-86700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-minister","tag-rwanda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86702,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86700\/revisions\/86702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metronews.ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}