A leading barrister and cross-bench peer, Alex Carlile, has condemned the government’s Rwanda bill as a “step towards totalitarianism” and signalled that the House of Lords plans to resist the legislation.
Rishi Sunak is preparing to give a press conference on Thursday morning on the government’s determination to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda, after the bill passed a third reading in the Commons last night when a Tory backbench rebellion faded.
But Lord Carlile, a former reviewer of terrorism legislation, confirmed the determination of the Lords to revise the bill, which aims to declare that Rwanda is a safe country for asylum seekers despite a judgment by the supreme court that it was not.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “Many of the lawyers in the House of Lords will say this is a step too far. This is an illegitimate interference by politics with the law on an issue that can be solved in other ways.”
He added: “We’ve seen in various other countries, the damage that’s done when governments use perceived and often ill-judged political imperatives to place themselves above the courts. This is a step towards totalitarianism and an attitude that the United Kingdom usually deprecates.”
Challenged on whether lawyers such as him were determined to frustrate politicians, Carlile said: “This has not been the judges meddling in politics; rather, it’s been government elevating itself to an unacceptable level above the law, above our much-admired supreme court and above the reputation for integrity internationally of United Kingdom law.
“The role of the House of Lords is not to thwart the government, its role is to revise legislation and to protect the public from abuses of legal correctness and principle by the government.
“I think many of us in the House of Lords believe that that is exactly what has happened to good policymaking, and the integrity of our legal system is under attack because of internal political quarrelling in the Conservative party.
“The law is being reduced in its importance to a level which is not appropriate for issues of this kind. This will not stop illegal immigration.”
The Home Office minister, Chris Philp, insisted the government was not acting above the law. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “We’re not disregarding the law, we’re making the law. Parliament is sovereign, parliament passes laws following sober debate, which is what the House of Commons did last night.”
He also insisted he would not need to advise civil servants to break international law to override “rule 39” injunctions on the Rwanda plan.
Asked whether he would be advising officials to disregard international obligations if Strasbourg orders threatened to obstruct flights taking off, he said: “No, because international law means our treaty obligations to be clear.
“There is no reference in the treaty we signed back in 1950 to these rule 39 injunctions, and the power provided for in the bill is a lawful power.”
