Rwanda ruling could reopen splits in the Tory party – and the stakes are now even higher for PM | Beth Rigby

Published

2 years ago

November 15, 2023

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Monday brought us the marmalade dropper reshuffle with the return of former prime minister David Cameron.

But when it comes to the fate of Rishi Sunak’s government with voters, Wednesday could well prove a much more consequential moment.

Politics Hub: Braverman launches scathing attack on PM

Because today the Supreme Court will rule on whether the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful. Mr Sunak hung his premiership on stopping small boats and made deportation to Rwanda the centrepiece of this immigration plan.

And one person who knows the enormity of this moment is former home secretary Suella Braverman, who for the past year has been trying to work out the policy.

Her incendiary post-sacking letter to Mr Sunak on Tuesday was a pre-emptive strike against the prime minister.

For all the astonishing turns of phrase in the letter, the aim of it was simple: What she was trying to do was pin any failure of the Rwandan policy on the PM, accusing him of failing to come up with a Plan B in the event the court rules against them.

“In the event of defeat, there’s no hope of flights this side of an election,” she said. “You have no appetite for doing what is necessary, and therefore no real intention of fulfilling your pledge to the British people.”

So even before the verdict is in the political challenge for the prime minister tonight is even more intense, and while the debate will rage about whether the Rwanda deal can really fix the small boats issues anyway, what has been put into play is the reputation of a prime minister on a flagship policy that he championed.

He needs to show lapsed or wavering 2019 Conservative voters that he is fighting tooth and nail for them on immigration, and the visual of asylum seekers being boarded on to flights and sent out of the country to Kigali is his antidote to the image of those people arriving on the south coast in small boats.

Perhaps pessimistic that the ruling will not go in the government’s favour today (the verdict is back from the court far sooner than originally suggested), Home Office minister Robert Jenrick took a pre-emptive strike on Tuesday, telling the Daily Telegraph the policy will go ahead “no ifs, not buts”, arguing that the plan to send illegal migrants to Rwanda was at the heart of the government’s promise to “stop the boats in their entirety”.

One Whitehall figure told me that Mr Jenrick, who distanced himself from Suella Braverman on style, was aligned with her on the substance of the Rwanda policy and is prepared – as she was – to do whatever it takes to make Rwanda work.

“If the court goes against the government…, the question is: what now? How firm is the government willing to be? Will the PM be willing to do whatever it takes? That is the big unknown.”

The new Home Secretary James Cleverly has publicly made it clear he doesn’t want to pull out of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in contrast to his predecessor Ms Braverman.

Mr Jenrick is also thought to be supportive of leaving or derogating from the ECHR in order to get flights off the ground. The scheme was put on hold in June last year after the ECHR granted a last minute injunction, blocking the first planned flight.

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However, with the ECHR unpinning the Good Friday Agreement and devolution, this is something the prime minister has been perhaps more reluctant to pursue, instead pushing world leaders at a summit with the president of the ECHR earlier this year to win backing for UK attempts to overcome rules that blocked flights.

Government figures argued on Tuesday that if they lose the court judgment, withdrawing from the ECHR at this stage is not on the cards.

But what is on the cards is a re-opening of Tory battle lines. A ruling against the government was always going to open up these divides within the Conservative Party on quitting the ECHR, and Ms Braverman is not just making it clear she wants to lead the charge from the backbenchers but is also accusing the prime minister of letting Conservative voters down.

Already a pivotal moment for him, now the stakes are even higher.

Politics

MP Zarah Sultana who was ousted from Labour announces she is starting new political party with Jeremy Corbyn

Published

3 hours ago

July 3, 2025

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MP Zarah Sultana who was ousted from Labour announces she is starting new political party with Jeremy Corbyn

An MP who was ousted from the Labour Party has announced she is setting up a new political party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Independent MP Zarah Sultana said she and the former Labour leader will co-lead the new party, which she did not provide a name for.

She said other independent MPs, campaigners and activists from across the country will join them, but did not name anyone.

Politics latest: Zarah Sultana’s stinging resignation letter

Ms Sultana also said she was “resigning” from the Labour Party after 14 years.

She was suspended as a Labour MP shortly after they came to power last summer for voting against the government maintaining the two-child benefit cap.

Several others from the left of the party, including Mr Corbyn, were also suspended for voting against the government, and also remained as independent MPs.

However, Ms Sultana was still a member of the Labour Party – until now.

Mr Corbyn has previously said the independent MPs who were suspended from Labour would “come together” to provide an “alternative.

The other four are: Iqbal Mohamed, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain.

Mr Corbyn and the other four independents have not said if they are part of the new party Ms Sultana announced.

In her announcement, Ms Sultana said she would vote to abolish the two-child benefit cap again and also voted against scrapping the winter fuel payment for most pensioners.

Ms Sultana also voted against the government’s welfare bill this week, which was heavily watered down as Sir Keir Starmer tried to prevent a major rebellion from his own MPs.

On Wednesday, Ms Sultana spoke passionately against Palestine Action being proscribed as a terror organisation – but MPs eventually voted for it to be.

She said to proscribe it is “a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity and suppress the truth”.

Ms Sultana said they were founding the new party because “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper – just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population”.

She called Reform leader Nigel Farage “a billionaire-backed grifter” leading the polls “because Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives.

The MP, who has spoken passionately about Gaza, added: “Across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.

“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.

“We are not going to take this anymore.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.

“Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”