Can Sunak Still Save His Rwanda Migration Plan?

In what may prove to be an ill-advised strategy, the prime minister used an emergency press conference to press the case for his emergency legislation to rescue the Rwanda refugee deportation plan – and perhaps also end his personal political emergency.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Rishi Sunak assured us his new bill will settle legal concerns raised by the Supreme Court. “We have blocked all the ways that illegal migrants will try and stay,” he said. “We have set the bar so high that it will be vanishingly rare to meet it.”

In doubling down on the Rwanda plan, and by trying to create a sense of urgency, Mr Sunak hopes to turn an embarrassing and expensive flop into an election winner. Despite sacking Suella Braverman, and suffering the damaging resignation of his former ally Robert Jenrick as immigration minister, Mr Sunak still seems determined to press on with the policy. He had already made “Stop the Boats” one of his five “people’s priorities” and has now further raised the profile of the immigration issue further. It may not have been wise.

What does Sunak want?

Not much, for a prime minister still in possession of a comfortable Commons majority. He is asking his own MPs to pass some government business in the usual manner, and to give his government the semblance of a coherent policy on migration. He would also like his party to display some unity and discipline, not least because the voters tend not to be impressed by divided parties.

Why is Sunak doing this?

Officially, because the Rwanda plan is supposed to be a key element in the government’s approach to irregular – “illegal” – migration. The Rwanda scheme, despite its modest size and practical doubts, has become not only a cornerstone of government policy but almost its entire raison d’etre.