Robert Jenrick has accused the prime minister of failing to keep his word “to do whatever it takes” to “stop the boats”.
The former immigration minister quit his role on Wednesday just hours after Rishi Sunak tabled a bill to save his Rwanda deportation policy.
Jenrick stood down after it was revealed that the legislation did not allow the government to override the international laws that have stopped it sending asylum seekers to central Africa. Rwanda had said it would pull out of the deal if the UK ignored international law and up to 10 ministers had indicated they could resign if the bill did so.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, the MP for Newark in Nottinghamshire claimed that when he was appointed in October 2022, the Home Office was “beleaguered”, with the UK “beyond breaking point” due to the number of crossings of small boats in the Channel.
He said that was compounded by the “indefensible” and “farcical” situation of hotels accommodating asylum seekers.
Jenrick wrote: “The prime minister was right, therefore, to promise to do whatever it takes to end this farce. And, until Wednesday, he had kept his word.”
He added that Sunak was right to argue the new Rwanda bill went further than the previous legislation, however he said that if passed it would still fail to end the “merry-go-round of legal challenges that prevent small boat arrivals being swiftly removed in sufficient numbers to create a meaningful deterrent”.
Section four of the bill allows people to lodge challenges against their individual deportation to Rwanda. Jenrick wrote: “Backlogs will likely build, and cases that would at best take months to resolve will be stayed considerably longer. Injunctions will likely follow.
“And we will begin losing bail claims, forcing us to release people from detention. People will of course abscond and disappear into communities.
“The idea, therefore, that this bill will guarantee all those arriving are detained and swiftly removed is for the birds.
“The only bill capable of delivering that is a bill that guarantees removal within days, not months, of arrival by blocking off individual challenges that would otherwise prevent that.”
Jenrick wrote that he also believes that integrating people from different countries into British society is “impossible” at the current levels of immigration.
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“GP services and hospitals do not grow on trees,” he wrote. “Integration is impossible if you let in over 1.2 million new people as we have done over the last two years.”
The Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill stopped short of leaving the European convention on human rights and does not include the “notwithstanding clauses” that would allow ministers to circumvent the ECHR and other international treaties.
The legislation, which must be voted on by parliament, gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act.
The prime minister told an emergency Downing Street press conference on Thursday that he would “finish the job” of getting his controversial deportation plan off the ground despite criticism from the Tory right and anxiety among centrist MPs.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
