Rwanda deportation ruling to be appealed by government at Supreme Court
Rishi Sunak said he “fundamentally disagrees” with a legal ruling that the Rwanda deportation scheme is unlawful – and will appeal it at the Supreme Court.
The prime minister said he will do “whatever is necessary” to get the removal flights going after campaigners won a Court of Appeal challenge over the controversial policy.
Earlier on Thursday, three judges overturned a High Court ruling that previously said the east African nation could be considered a “safe third country” for migrants to be sent to.
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It was the latest court verdict in a long-running legal battle to get the scheme up and running, after it was announced last April as part of plans to crack down on Channel crossings.
Announcing the ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said he does not accept that migrants would be at risk of removal to their home countries from Rwanda – but it is not a safe place for them to be housed in while their asylum claims are processed.
The judge concluded: “The result is that the High Court’s decision that Rwanda was a safe third country is reversed, and unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum process are corrected, removal of asylum seekers will be unlawful.”
However, Mr Sunak said: “While I respect the court, I fundamentally disagree with their conclusions.
“I strongly believe the Rwandan government has provided the assurances necessary to ensure there is no real risk that asylum seekers relocated under the Rwanda policy would be wrongly returned to third countries – something that the Lord Chief Justice agrees with.
“Rwanda is a safe country. The High Court agreed. The UNHCR have their own refugee scheme for Libyan refugees in Rwanda. We will now seek permission to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court.”
This was echoed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who said she was “fully committed” to the policy.
The Rwandan government also said it took “issue” with the ruling, calling the nation “one of the safest countries in the world”.
Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said her administration was “still committed” to making the partnership work, adding: “The broken global migration system is failing to protect the vulnerable, and empowering criminal smuggling gangs at an immeasurable human cost.
“When the migrants do arrive, we will welcome them and provide them with the support they’ll need to build new lives in Rwanda.”
Lord Burnett said the court reached its conclusion on the law and took “no view whatsoever” about the political merits of the policy.
The Rwanda plan has been stalled by legal challenges
The judge, who heard the appeal with Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lord Justice Underhill, said the court ruled by a majority and he had agreed with a previous ruling saying the scheme was lawful – but the two others did not.
He said the court unanimously accepted that assurances on safety from the Rwandan government were made “in good faith”.
However, “the majority believes that the evidence does not establish that the necessary changes had by then been reliably effected or would have been at the time of the proposed removals”.
PM’s plan ‘unravelling’
As a result, the court decided sending anyone to Rwanda would constitute a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, “with which parliament has required that the government must comply.”
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, said the judgement “shows that Rishi Sunak has no plan to fix the Tories’ small boats chaos and his only idea is completely unravelling”.
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Home sec ‘fully committed’ to Rwanda policy
She added: “Ministers were forced to admit this week that it will cost £169,000 to send each person to Rwanda on top of the £140m of taxpayers’ money they have already spent. Now the court has found that ministers didn’t even do the basic work to make sure the scheme was legal or safe.”
Downing Street refused to say whether it still believes any migrants will be sent to Rwanda before the next election.
However, Mr Sunak’s official spokesperson denied that this decision will delay the prime minister’s pledge to “stop the boats”, saying the Rwanda scheme is “one element” of the plan to reduce migration.
Ms Braverman made a statement in the House of Commons, in which she criticised the “phoney humanitarianism” of people thinking the UK can accept an unlimited number of entries.
Government hits another legal brick wall
Rishi Sunak has staked his premiership on a promise to ‘stop the boats’.
Whilst Suella Braverman has said that deporting migrants to Rwanda is her “dream”.
But like those that came before them, this prime minister and his home secretary have found themselves locked in court battles over this controversial policy, yet to get it off the ground.
Today, they have hit yet another legal brick wall, with the court of appeal ruling it unlawful.
This pushes back their original ambition to see flights this summer, and will likely now go to the Supreme Court.
With a general election on the horizon, the Prime Minister is desperate to demonstrate progress on this issue before voters head to the ballot boxes.
That said, if the threat of deportation continues to be ineffective at deterring channel crossings, the legal log jam could become a convenient political excuse.
The government wants to send tens of thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles away to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal agreed with the government in Kigali last year.
The policy was introduced under Boris Johnson but has been pushed forward by his successors as part of their plans to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel.
However, no one has made the journey yet.
The first flight was stopped at the eleventh hour in June last year after an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
UK
UK has no plans for conscription – but future decisions will respond to ‘new reality’, says minister
The UK is not considering introducing conscription to ready the country for a potential war – but decisions may be needed in the future to respond to the “new reality” we are now living in, a minister has told Sky News.
In an interview with Trevor Phillips, Latvian President Edgars Rinkeviks has urged European countries to follow his country’s lead and “absolutely” introduce conscription, conceding the continent is “quite weak” militarily.
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‘Debate’ in Latvia about introducing conscription for women
Asked if the UK government is considering introducing the measure to boost the armed forces, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said it is important the UK does not find itself operating under “old assumptions” – and that it may be “decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality”.
He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are not considering conscription, but of course we have announced a major increase in defence expenditure.
“We do have to recognise that the world has changed. The phrase ‘step up’ is used a lot. Europe does have to step up in terms of its own defence.
“President Trump isn’t actually the first president to say that, but he said it more loudly and with more force than his predecessors – so, I think we have got to recognise that moment.”
‘UK cannot cling to old assumptions’
He added: “When the world is changing as fast as it is, it’s important that we don’t cling on to old assumptions.
“I think the prime minister has played a tremendous role in recent weeks in responding to that situation and explaining it to the public.
“That is why the decision on increasing defence expenditure was needed.
“It may be why other decisions are needed in the future that respond to a new reality, and that we don’t find ourselves caught operating under the same assumption as we used to in the past when the situation has changed.”
‘Battlefield is changing’
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP but has not set out when this will be achieved. Ministers say a defence review to be published this spring will set out a “roadmap” to it.
The number is much lower than the US president has demanded NATO members spend on defence, with Mr Trump saying they should all be spending 5% – an amount last seen during the Cold War.
Asked if the “new reality” involved a bigger army, Mr McFadden said ministers were waiting for the conclusion of the review.
But he added: “One thing is for sure, you would not spend money today on the same things as you would 10 years ago.
“The experience of the three years of the war in Ukraine has shown just how fast the battlefield is changing in terms of cyber, drones, the use of intelligence.”
The Conservatives’ first policy announcement of last year’s general election campaign was that the party would introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds.
Asked if the Tories still stood by the plan which was in their manifesto, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We are obviously not going to write our manifesto now, so I am not going to recommit to things in the previous manifesto.
“We’ll need to do the thinking properly. I am not going to speculate four years ahead of the election.
“I don’t think it was really exactly conscription that was being proposed, it was a National Citizen Service which is a bit different.
“The idea of getting younger people to do voluntary work and perform useful tasks is not a bad idea.”
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‘Right time’ to think about conscription
Last year, Britain’s former top NATO commander told Sky News it was time to “think the unthinkable” and consider introducing conscription.
General Sir Richard Sherriff, ex-deputy supreme allied commander of the military organisation, said: “I think we need to get over many of the cultural hang-ups and assumptions, and frankly think the unthinkable.
“I think we need to go further and look carefully at conscription.”
Police searching for the suspect in the Kent pub shooting on Valentine’s Day have recovered a body from the River Thames.
Lisa Smith, 43, was killed after she was shot outside The Three Horseshoes in Knockholt on the evening of Friday 14 February.
Later that night, the suspect, named as Edvard Smith, was believed to have fallen into the Thames from the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge which crosses the river at Dartford 17 miles away.
Lisa Smith
Around that time, the suspect’s car containing a handgun was found abandoned on the bridge and a man was seen on the wrong side of the barrier.
About a week after the shooting, Kent Police said they believed Edvard Smith had died after falling into the water.
The force has now said a body was found in the Thames near Rainham in Essex on Friday afternoon. It has not been formally identified but the suspect’s family have been told of the development.
Edvard Smith was known to Ms Smith and there had been no prior contact between the police and the victim or suspect.
‘So much commotion’
Following the shooting, the landlady of The Three Horseshoes, Michelle Thomas, told Sky News she heard two loud bangs that she initially “thought were fireworks” on the night of the attack.
She said there was “so much commotion – screaming, shouting, crying” and the shooting had left the community in “absolute shock”.
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CCTV captures sound of gunshots near fatal shooting site
She said Ms Smith, from Slough, had been to the pub before, “mostly in the summer” but “wasn’t a regular”.
Ms Thomas also said about 30 people were at the pub for dinner, while 20 more were in the bar as the incident unfolded just after 7pm.
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Kent Police said on Saturday: “A body has been recovered by police from the River Thames, which is being linked to a murder investigation in Knockholt.
“On Friday 14 February 2025, Lisa Smith, 43, was killed after she was shot outside a pub in Main Road. The suspect was known to Lisa and later that evening officers found his car abandoned on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. Enquiries established he had fallen into the water below.
“At around 3.45pm on Friday 7 March, a body was located near Rainham, Essex. Formal identification has not yet taken place; however, the man’s family have been informed.”
Parts of the UK are expected to be hotter than the Balearic Islands, Costa del Sol and the Amalfi Coast this weekend.
The country is set to reach the highest temperatures of the year so far, with central England heating up to 20C on Sunday.
Saturday is also set to reach temperatures in the high teens, with East Anglia, northwest England, the north Midlands and North Wales hitting 18-19C, the Met Office said.
Those temperatures are believed to be above average for this time of year.
Get the latest forecast for your area here
Craig Snell, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said there are a “few exceptions” to the “fine and sunny” weekend weather, including areas in the far north of Scotland, but those areas will still be generally dry and sunny.
A map showing warm fronts over the UK on Saturday
Meanwhile, popular holiday destinations in Europe are expected to record cooler temperatures.
A high of 15C is forecast this weekend for Marbella on the south coast of Spain, a maximum of 17C is expected in Ibiza, and 18C is forecast for Sorrento on Italy’s Amalfi Coast.
People were out in force on Saturday, enjoying the warmer weather. Pic: PA
Joggers run along the sea front in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
Pic: PA
Sky News meteorologist Chris England said the warm weekend is not expected to last, with conditions “cooling off from the North on Sunday night and through Monday”.
Colder fronts will start to move across the UK on Monday
By Wednesday the UK will experience wintry showers and cold temperatures
A spell of rain will move south across the country early next week, bringing the return of a few wintry showers in the North and North East.
“While there is uncertainty in the extent of rain and wintry showers through the middle of next week, there is higher confidence that below average temperatures will continue through the week, bringing a very different feel to the mild weather over the weekend,” deputy chief meteorologist Chris Bulmer said.
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Temperatures will drop back below average across the UK from Tuesday, according to the Met Office.
Rural spots in Scotland could plummet as low as -4C, with maximum daytime temperatures typically between 5-8C.
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