THE UK Attorney General has issued a rallying cry to “complete Brexit” after the Government’s initial failed attempt to deport people to Rwanda.
Suella Braverman has said it is “time to complete Brexit and let the British people decide who can and cannot stay in our country” after a European court decision which effectively grounded the first flight to send asylum seekers out of the country.
Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) granted last-minute interim measures covering three people who had been due to be on the first flight to Rwanda on Tuesday night.
“This is still a topic being discussed in Government but I have significant reservations about our relationship with the European Court of Human Rights,” Braverman said in comments carried by the Daily Express.
“In the EU referendum the British people voted to take back control of our laws.
“They are rightly baffled why our immigration controls can still be blocked by European judges.
“It’s time to complete Brexit and let the British people decide who can and cannot stay in our country.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel has previously described the court’s decision as politically motivated, while Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said it was wrong for the injunction to be granted.
The row has led to calls from some Tory MPs to pull out of the ECHR, the document interpreted by the court in Strasbourg – something which No 10 and Braverman have not ruled out.
Raab has claimed the UK would stay within the convention but new laws could ensure that interim measures from the Strasbourg court could effectively be ignored by the Government.
The Government plans to replace the Human Rights Act, which enshrines the ECHR in domestic law, with a new Bill of Rights.
Ongoing court battles have created uncertainty over when any further attempts to fly asylum seekers to the African country will be made, although Patel has previously said the Government “will not be deterred from doing the right thing, we will not be put off by the inevitable last-minute legal challenges”.
The SNP’s Joanna Cherry, the acting chair of the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, said the Government should be focusing on providing more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers rather than their “failing” Rwanda scheme.
She said: “Dominic Raab just wants to change the rules because the UK Government’s nasty xenophobic policies won’t survive proper human rights scrutiny.
“Rather than wasting taxpayers' money towards their failing Rwanda scheme the UK Government should provide more safe legal routes for asylum seekers in terms of their obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights and refugee convention.”
