Nigel Farage fires warning shot to Rishi Sunak over Rwanda as he hints at return to frontline politics: Ex-UKIP leader blasts ‘cop out’ deal and urges Tory MPs to vote it down in the Commons tomorrow in first major intervention after leaving jungle
Nigel Farage tonight branded Rishi Sunak’s new Rwanda migrant law a ‘cop out’ and urged Tory MPs to vote it down tomorrow, despite ministers warning of an £11billion annual bill without drastic action.
The former Ukip and Brexit Party leader, now a reality TV contestant, lashed out at the plan after finishing third in the latest series of I’m A Celebrity.
He warned the Tories were heading for ‘electoral catastrophe’, telling the Sun: ‘I very much hope the plan goes under tomorrow.’
Mr Farage, who has made seven unsuccessful attempts to become an MP, has been linked with a ‘dream ticket’ bid to lead the Conservatives alongside with Boris Johnson.
But he appeared to pour some cold water on that, refusing to rule it out but saying there did not appear any way to enter Parliament before the next election.
He also threw shade at Tory MPs, branding them ‘a pretty spineless, useless Oxbridge bunch generally … it’s tough to find any chins on them really’.
It came as the Government today admitted that the cost of illegal immigration could quadruple – as Tory right-wingers demanded Rishi Sunak toughens up his Rwanda legislation.
Nigel Farage, the former Ukip and Brexit Party leader and now a reality TV contestant, lashed out at the PM’s Rwanda plan after finishing third in the latest series of I’m A Celebrity.
Mr Farage branded Rishi Sunak’s new Rwanda legislation a ‘cop out’ and urged Tory MPs to vote it down
The PM and his allies have been desperately trying to convince Conservatives to get behind his proposals in a Commons vote tomorrow
The PM is battling to persuade MPs to back his new ‘Safety of Rwanda Bill’, intended to get around the Supreme Court’s legal block on migrant flights.
In an unusual step, the Government published its legal advice on the proposals this afternoon, insisting there will only be an ‘exceptionally narrow route’ for Channel boats arrivals to appeal against deportation.
But the assessment also raised the shocking prospect of spending on accommodation alone hitting £32 million per day by 2026 if the situation is not tackled. That compares to the figure of around £8million a day previously.
The so-called ‘Star Chamber’ of lawyers, assembled to advise MPs on the Tory right, issued a withering verdict on the new law today.
In a ten-page assessment, the legal panel branded the Bill ‘partial and incomplete’ and warned it does not go ‘far enough to deliver the policy as intended’.
After a meeting of five blocs of Tory backbenchers, Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group, said there was a ‘consensus’ the PM should rethink
Senior Tory MP David Jones (right), a member of the ‘Star Chamber’, warned tinkering with the Rwanda Bill would not satisfy their demands
After a meeting of five blocs of Tory backbenchers, Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group, said there was a ‘consensus’ the PM should rethink.
‘The Government would be best advised to pull the Bill and come up with a revised version that works better than this one that has so many holes in it,’ he said.
Senior Tory MP David Jones, a member of the ‘Star Chamber’, warned tinkering with the Bill would not satisfy their demands.
‘I don’t think the Bill is easily amendable,’ he said. ‘And, really, I think the Government needs to review it and maybe consider a completely new piece of legislation.’
The verdict of Tory right-wingers heaps pressure on Mr Sunak ahead of a scheduled House of Commons vote on the Bill tomorrow.
The One Nation group of Tory moderates – many of whom say the Bill goes too far in striking out human rights rules – will gather this evening to thrash out their own position.
The so-called ‘Star Chamber’ of lawyers assembled by the ERG bloc has given a tepid reception to the PM’s emergency measures
Documents slipped out by the Home Office show the department is issuing contracts to manage the arrival of migrants on small boats until at least 2030, with the option of extending the contracts until 2034
Small boats used by Channel arrivals being stored at Dover, Kent
Mr Sunak and his allies have been desperately trying to convince Conservatives to get behind his proposals.
In a rare move intended to win over critics, the Government this afternoon published a summary of its legal position on the Bill.
It stated that the Bill could not completely block any fresh legal challenges to the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The document said this ‘would be a breach of international law and alien to the UK’s constitutional tradition of liberty and justice’.
It noted how ‘even in wartime the UK has maintained access to the courts in order that individuals can uphold their rights and freedom’.
‘The Bill limits unnecessary challenges whilst maintaining the principle of access to the courts where an individual may be at a real risk of serious and irreversible harm,’ it added.
The document described the Government’s approach as ‘tough but fair and lawful’, which ‘seeks to uphold our international obligations’.
‘This is a novel and contentious policy, and the UK and Rwanda are the first countries in the world to enact it together,’ it read.
‘There are risks inherent in such an innovative approach but there is a clear lawful basis on which a responsible government may proceed.
‘For the reasons set out in this paper, a Bill that sought to oust all individual claims would not provide such a basis.’
The document warned, if illegal immigration goes unaddressed, the cost of asylum accommodation alone could increase to £32million per day by 2026 – equivalent to £11billion per year.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was sent out on broadcast media today to highlight modelling that showed only one in 200 legal challenges would be successful under the new measures.
However, officials have conceded there is only a 50-50 chance of the first flights taking off next year, as Mr Sunak has suggested.
And documents slipped out by the Home Office show the department is issuing contracts to manage the arrival of migrants on small boats until at least 2030, with the option of extending the contracts until 2034.
Up to £700million will be spent running the Western Jet Foil facility in Dover and the reception centre at the former Manston airfield in Kent.
To add to the difficulties for Mr Sunak, he is giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry today as the drama develops nearby in Westminster.
A One Nation source said some of its MPs were considering voting against the Bill tomorrow to make plain that they think it goes too far in over-riding the Human Rights Act.
‘We have genuine concerns about the legality of some of the Bill, and so we are talking to both ministers and lawyers to see where we eventually land,’ the MP told the Mail last night.
A final decision will be made during the group’s meeting at 6pm.
Right-wing MPs from groups including the New Conservatives, the ERG and the Common Sense Group met at midday to discuss the findings of Sir Bill Cash’s ‘Star Chamber’ team of legal experts.
Sir Bill said ‘very significant amendments’ to the legislation are needed.
‘The PM may well be right when he claims that this is the ‘toughest piece of migration legislation ever put forward by a UK Government’, but we do not believe that it goes far enough to deliver the policy as intended,’ the legal panel said in a summary of their opinion.
Mr Francois said there will be another meeting of MPs on the Tory right this evening, which is due to be attended by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
Speaking to reporters, he said: ‘We discussed this for a good hour-and-a-half and I’m not sure that final decisions will be taken even today, because of the importance of the issue.
‘The feeling very much in the meeting is that the Government would be best advised to pull the Bill and come up with a revised version that works better than this one that has so many holes in it.
‘As much as there was a consensus, that was the consensus.’
But Mr Francois signalled MPs at today’s meeting had yet to decide whether to vote against the Bill or abstain in the Commons tomorrow.
‘We’ve dropped the Government a broad hint, we’ll see how the Government replies,’ he added.
Mr Jones said: I don’t think the Bill is easily amendable. And, really, I think the Government needs to review it and maybe consider a completely new piece of legislation.
‘Because this leaves so many gaps in the legislation and so many ways in that people could actually evade the legislation if they wanted to remain in this country.’
Danny Kruger, a co-chairman of the New Conservatives, said: ‘The Bill doesn’t yet work but we’re hopeful the Government will come forward with improvements.’
Former minister Simon Clarke, a leader of the Conservative Growth Group, said the legal advice supplied by the ‘Star Chamber’ was ‘very concerning’.
He urged the Government to ‘engage’ with rebel MPs and come forward with amendments to the legislation.
‘It does set out a number of quite clear and specific challenges to the Government on whether the legislation works,’ he said.
‘There is no point frankly in our relitigating this issue unless it does work.’
Mr Shapps denied that Mr Sunak’s leadership was under threat amid the Tory backlash to the Rwanda Bill.
The minister told Times Radio: ‘The modelling shows … that only one out of 200 cases would now pass through, once this legislation – in the form proposed – has gone through and become law.
‘I think it’s the case that once you break the model, that people will stop trying, or the people traffickers will stop trying to send people because it will be fundamentally unsuccessful.
‘Now, you can always have an argument should you just break international law, or ignore the whole thing, or what have you.
‘We think, on balance, the United Kingdom is a country which respects international law.’
However, that was disputed by one senior Tory source who said the assessment was months out of date.
‘This is an outdated and analytically flawed model – from March – which came before defeats in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court,’ they said.
‘Number 10 don’t realise the world has changed and that’s their fundamental problem.
‘There was never any modelling done for the new Rwanda bill because they failed to plan.
‘Even this old, optimistic model says it could take more than two months to remove a migrant. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.’
Mr Jenrick said he would not support the Bill – suggesting he may abstain in tomorrow’s vote – as he delivered another thinly veiled pop at the PM.
He told the BBC: ‘We’ve already done two Bills, this is the third Bill. It’s three strikes and you’re out.
‘I want this Bill to work and create that powerful deterrent and I’m afraid it’s very clear to all those people who really understand how this system operates that this Bill will not succeed.’
But last night a Government source claimed Mr Jenrick had ‘changed his tune dramatically, leading people to conclude this is more about his career ambitions than policy principle’.
Tory MPs on both the left and right of the party look set to inflict damaging blows to Rishi Sunak (pictured) as they give their verdict on his Rwanda plan
Ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick (pictured) said he would not support the Bill – suggesting he may abstain in tomorrow’s vote – as he delivered another thinly veiled pop at the PM
‘As recently as July he was making the case for safeguards for a vanishingly small group of people who are at ‘risk of serious and irreversible harm’, which is exactly what this Bill does,’ the source said.
‘People are baffled by his behaviour – he is arguing against a system he very personally advocated for just weeks ago.’
Tory whips – and Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron – spent the weekend trying to convince MPs to back the Bill, but one source on the Right of the party said they were ‘surprised’ that Mr Sunak did not reach out. Meanwhile, No 10 is resisting pressure to amend the Bill.
A Government source said: ‘We are talking to colleagues, but we are confident this Bill is extremely robust and makes the routes for any individual challenge vanishingly small. This is the strongest possible piece of legislation to get Rwanda operational.’
Modelling suggests 90 per cent of appeals will be dismissed within days, before reaching court – allowing illegal migrants to be put on planes immediately.
Of the remaining 10 per cent granted a ‘permission to pass go’ to appeal to the Upper Tribunal, nine in ten are expected to be denied around 25 days after they arrived in the UK.
Officials estimate half of those would lose their case and be removed.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove said the Government takes ‘seriously’ the views of its backbenchers on the proposed legislation, telling Sky News: ‘We will see what Sir Bill and the Star Chamber say.
‘We take seriously the views of colleagues, particularly eminent colleagues like Sir Bill who have deep and profound legal experience.
‘But we believe this Bill is tough and robust, and more than that you can look, you can read down the Bill, compare it to the Supreme Court judgment, and you can see that this Bill will ensure that all of the reasons that were used in the past to prevent people going to Rwanda are dealt with.’
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