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The right wing of the British Tory party lost the battle over asylum policy, but may win the war.
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A victory which in that case will mean that the Conservatives will again have to change their leader.
On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak won approval in the House of Commons for a controversial plan to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda.
The plan was originally launched by Boris Johnson in the spring of 2022, as an expression of the Brexit slogan of taking back control of British borders and immigration.
The aim was to throttle migration across the English Channel. In 2021, 29,000 migrants arrived in the UK by sea. The following year, the figure was 45,755, according to UK immigration authorities.
Following the pattern of an Australian law from 2012 which empowered to reduce the flow of migrants from neighboring Asian countries, BoJo wanted to deport illegal asylum seekers to Africa.
The experience was that migrants who risked ending up in a detention camp in a completely different country did not take the chance of going to Australia.
An agreement with Rwanda was concluded, and the British paid NOK 3.2 billion to the East African country.
YES NO, PRIME MINISTER: Boris Johnson says no to the asylum proposal he voted for. Rishi Sunak says yes to asylum proposal he voted against. Photo: TOLGA AKMEN / AFP / NTB
But Johnson’s government had not checked the legal basis for unilaterally setting aside international law. Details have never been BoJo’s thing.
The proposal was thus halted by several courts before the British Supreme Court unanimously ruled that it was illegal. Because asylum seekers sent to Rwanda were at risk of being forwarded to countries where they risked being mistreated or killed.
The plane that was supposed to bring the first of a total of 1,000 migrants to Rwanda in the early summer of 2022 never took off. It is still uncertain whether it will ever take off.
In the Upper House, which must approve new laws, there is great skepticism.
The asylum fad came on top of a number of other Boris scandals which, in sum, led to the Conservative Party in June 2022 raising a motion of no confidence against its own prime minister.
When several ministers subsequently resigned in protest against BoJo, the incumbent Tory government disintegrated.
Since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister in October 2022, he has prepared the legal basis for a watertight bill on asylum exports to Rwanda. A proposal that can gain a majority in both chambers of parliament, and – not least – survive investigations in international courts as well as the European Human Rights Commission.
WATERPROOF: Rishi Sunak has won approval for a controversial plan to stop the boats with mirants across the English Channel. Migrants are to be intimidated with threats of deportation to Africa. Photo: POOL / Reuters / NTB
So would you believe that the Conservatives were very happy with a pragmatic Prime Minister who was able to anchor the party’s policy in the National Assembly and lead one of their most important issues to a new law?
On the contrary.
Speaking enough for the deep division in the Conservative Party, this is where Sunak has received the most opposition.
When the bill passed in the House of Commons on Wednesday evening, at the third attempt, he had managed to put down an internal Tory rebellion of 60 representatives from the party’s militant right-wing phalanx the day before.
In the penultimate round, they rejected Sunak’s proposal. Officially because it didn’t go far enough. Unofficially because they wanted to send him a signal that he is at their mercy.
RED CLOTH: Former interior minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, Suella Braverman, voted against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s proposal to send illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda. A plan she herself has been involved in and designed. Photo: MARIA UNGER / AFP / NTB
On Wednesday, “only” 11 Tory MPs voted against. But one of them was the Rwanda Plan’s original godmother, former Interior Minister Suella Braverman.
In addition, the victory cost him Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick. He thought the same as the Tory rebels, and resigned.
Two others who followed Jenrick were the party’s high-profile deputy leaders, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith. Duly incited by Boris Johnson, who has not failed to remind that Rishi Sunak said no to the Rwanda plan when he presented it himself.
How BoJo now says no to a plan he originally voted for.
Outwardly, this is about immigration. But inside is the battle for the soul of the Tory party.
Whether the Conservatives should be what is called One Nation Tories – a broad, moderate people’s party. Or whether the party should sharpen its dark blue rhetoric in order to attract a more extreme right wing.
Because it is an election year, must know.
Published:
Published: 18.01.24 at 22:28
2024-01-18 21:28:02
#Comment #Tory #rebellion #asylum #policy
