Keir Starmer vows to scrap Rwanda deportation plan even if it DOES curb Channel boats should he win the keys to No10
Keir Starmer today vowed to scrap Rwanda deportations even if they are working should he become PM.
The Labour leader insisted the policy was ‘wrong’ and too expensive as he ruled out keeping it under any circumstances.
Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman have put the idea at the heart of their push to ‘Stop the Boats’, saying would-be migrants will be deterred if they know they will not stay in the UK.
Supreme Court justices are due to hear arguments from the Home Office tomorrow that legal blocks on the scheme should be lifted.
Keir Starmer (pictured arriving for conference in Liverpool today) insisted the Rwanda policy was ‘wrong’ and too expensive as he ruled out keeping it under any circumstances
A group of Channel migrants being brought ashore in Kent last week
Asked in a BBC interview whether he would ditch the policy even if it is ruled legal and cuts Channel crossings, Sir Keir said: ‘Yes.
‘I think it’s the wrong policy, it’s hugely expensive. It’s a tiny number of individuals who would go to Rwanda and the real problem is at source.
‘You’re putting this to me on the basis that it’s working, we’ve been told by the Government time and again that even saying they’ve got a Rwanda scheme will reduce the numbers – that hasn’t happened.’
Instead Sir Keir said he would work with other countries to ‘smash the criminal gangs who are running this vile trade’ of people smuggling.
If the Rwanda scheme is given the go-ahead by British courts, the European Court of Human Rights could still attempt to block it with an interim injunction.
That could theoretically be ignored under measures in the new Illegal Migration Act earlier this year.
However, senior Tories believe Attorney General Victoria Prentis could try and block the move.
It would leave the Prime Minister with the choice of giving in to the European court or overruling the Government’s chief law officer.
Ministers are drawing up emergency legislation that would attempt to carve out illegal migration from the jurisdiction of the ECHR in the event of a Supreme Court defeat.
Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman have put the idea at the heart of their push to ‘Stop the Boats’, saying would-be migrants will be deterred if they know they will not stay in the UK
Ms Braverman is understood to believe a ‘halfway house’ option would be to exclude illegal migrants from the remit of human rights laws.
Parliament would be asked to pass the new measures revoking the ECHR in all cases involving small boat migrants and other ‘irregular’ arrivals.
It would mean unelected judges at home and abroad could no longer interfere in Parliament’s decisions on illegal migration.
However, the legislation would be ‘very difficult’ to get through in the time available before the next general election.
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