Rishi Sunak aims to block UK human rights laws in an effort to revive the government’s faltering plans to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda.
An emergency bill published on Wednesday will assert that ministers have the power to ignore judgments that come from Strasbourg while stopping short of leaving or “disapplying” the European convention on human rights.
It will, however, seek to disapply relevant parts of the UK’s Human Rights Act in asylum claims.
Critics from the Conservative right have said that such a move raises the possibility that it will still be open to individual legal challenges.
The emergency legislation stopped short of leaving the convention and does not include “notwithstanding clauses” which would allow ministers to ignore the ECHR and other international treaties in the area of asylum.
The safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill will infuriate the hard right of the Conservative party. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, told MPs just two hours earlier that the Tories faced “electoral oblivion” unless ministers blocked all domestic and international laws used to halt deportation flights.
The bill will be seen as aiming for a middle ground in the emergency legislation to get the Rwanda scheme off the ground as he remains under severe pressure to stop small boat crossings.
No 10 had been considering two options. The first, the so-called “semi-skimmed” option, aimed to disapply only the UK’s Human Rights Act in asylum claims. However, this would not prevent challenges by individual migrants, sources said.
The second, “full-fat” option removed the right of judicial review and included “notwithstanding clauses”, which would allow ministers to ignore the ECHR and other international treaties in the area of asylum.
In a statement, Sunak said: “Through this new landmark emergency legislation, we will control our borders, deter people taking perilous journeys across the Channel and end the continuous legal challenges filling our courts.
“And we will disapply sections of the Human Rights Act from the key parts of the bill, specifically in the case of Rwanda, to ensure our plan cannot be stopped.
“We have acted quickly to remedy the issues raised by the supreme court, proving that Rwanda is not just a safe country, but a modern, prosperous nation, and today we are ending the tactics used by people to cheat the system and betray the British people.”
Tory sources said both Sunak and Cleverly had been talking to Tory colleagues before the publication of the bill and were confident it would win the approval of both wings of the Tory party. “The Conservatives want to stop the boats and tackle illegal immigration,” said a spokesperson. “This bill is a key component of getting those numbers down.”
The bill will be introduced to the Commons on Thursday, with a substantive debate due to happen next week.
