Concerns was growing last night that plans to fast-track Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda immigration policy risk delay.
Friction is said to be emerging within the Cabinet over the policy, with Conservative backbenchers left fearing the worst for the asylum plan.
Yesterday the new Home Secretary James Cleverly left colleagues enraged when he said that the migration agreement with the African nation was not the “be all and end all”.
He also suggested that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights – which has be blamed for the original Rwanda scheme being ruled illegal by the Supreme Court – may actually hurt the fight against illegal migration.
“I do not want to do anything that might undermine the key co-operation we have with countries [who] are very wedded to the ECHR for understandable reasons,” he told a newspaper.
“Nothing is cost free. Everything needs to be considered, the advantages and disadvantages.”
Sunak has made clear that he is ready to quit the international agreement if it gets in the way of the Government’s plan to bring down the number of illegal arrivals to the UK.
The apparent chasm between the Prime Minister and his Home Secretary risks leading to stalemate and delays to any new Rwanda deal.
Following Cleverly’s comments, a Conservative source told The Sun: “This is meant to be an emergency, they have to get on with it.”
Meanwhile, Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathan Gullis said: “We made a promise to the British people to stop the boats.
“He would be wise to remember this.”
A Government source said: “The most important thing is getting these planes off the ground quickly, and not fighting an ideological war.”
More to follow…
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