Sunak slams Labour for wanting to ‘welcome small boats’ with ‘cosy deal’ with EU
Rishi Sunak has blasted Labour for wanting to do a “cosy deal with France” and accept even more small boat migrants, despite his Supreme Court defeat this morning.
The Rwanda policy was the focus of Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, with Mr Sunak speaking for the first time after this mornings blow from the UK’s top court.
Sir Keir slammed Mr Sunak for “wasting his time” on the Rwanda “gimmick” and criticised the cost to the taxpayer of hotel bills.
“Plan A has failed and after this session whether he likes it or not he’ll have to go back to his office, back to the drawing board and start from scratch”.
However the Prime Minister hit back and said Sir Keir had been on the wrong side of the issue on border controls his entire career.
“He talks about taking small boats crossings seriously, he’s opposed every single measure that we have taken!
“Let me update him on what we’ve done this year: the number of illegal Albanian arrivals down by 90 percent; 20,000 people returned this year; the number of crossings down by one-third; he mentions hotels, closing 50 of them – money being saved for taxpayers!
“All by the way opposed by the party opposite.
“What is the Hon. Gentleman’s plan? Ah, there we have it: a cosy deal with the EU that would see the UK accept 100,000 illegal migrants.
“He doesn’t want to stop the boats, he wants to welcome more of them!”
Speaking ahead of PMQs, Mr Sunak welcomed the fact the Supreme Court had confirmed that removing asylum seekers to a safe third country is lawful.
However he conceded there are “further elements they want additional certainty on and noted that changes can be delivered in the future to address those issues”.
He revealed the Government has already been working on a new treaty with Rwanda, and they will now finalise that “in light of today’s judgement”.
The Prime Minister added that if necessary he is “prepared to revisit our domestic legal frameworks”, suggesting Britain’s relationship with the ECHR could be amended.
He said that if the new treaty is still being frustrated by international conventions, “I am prepared to change our laws and revisit those international relationships”.
“The British people expect us to whatever it takes to stop the boats and that’s precisely what this government will deliver”.
Many on the Tory right now want the Government to consider quitting the European Convention on Human Rights and replace it with a domestic British Bill of Rights in order to allow the Rwanda scheme to go ahead.
Sir Simon Clarke said Mr Sunak’s response to today’s ruling is a “confidence issue” that could threaten his premiership.
Other Tory MPs want a new ‘notwithstanding’ clause in the Rwanda law to allow Britain to ignore its international treaty obligations.
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