Cabinet minister admits UK-France migrant returns could be ‘frustrated’ by legal challenges
A cabinet minister has said attempts to deport asylum seekers could be delayed in the courts, amid confusion over whether there is a human rights “loophole” in the UK’s migration deal with France.
The “one in, one out” agreement will see migrants ineligible to stay in the UK sent back across the Channel. In exchange, the UK will take from France those who have links to Britain.
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The treaty contains a clause that says in order for people to be returned, the UK must confirm they do not have an “outstanding human rights claim”.
Critics have argued this could risk bogus applications being made to frustrate the deportation process and cause delays.
Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary, said it was an obvious “loophole” in the deal.
However, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News this was “not the case at all”.
“The deal that we’ve struck will allow people with us to send people back to France who have human rights claims. Those claims will be heard in France,” she said.
Channel crossings have reached a record high. Pic: PA
But despite denying there was a loophole, Ms Nandy admitted deportations could get held up in UK the courts.
She said: “Obviously there are people who will try to frustrate the process through the courts, but we’re speeding up the court process to make sure that those delays will be minimal and we will be able to return people to France so that, if they have an asylum claim, for example, that claim can be heard in France if they’ve travelled through France on the way here on small boats.”
When asked for clarity, the Home Office insisted people can be removed from the UK if they have made a human rights claim which is “clearly unfounded” in UK law.
It is understood that preparations have been made for judicial challenges against these decisions to be heard by UK courts from France, though sources suggested that once France has agreed to accept a return, there is no way back.
The charity Care4Calais said it would consider its options, with a spokesperson telling Sky News: “Care4Calais initiated legal challenges against the last government’s Rwanda policy and their attempts to introduce ‘pushbacks’ in the Channel – and we won.
“We will consider all options open to us to oppose any plans that will put more lives at risk, and involve governments trading humans.”
The government is under pressure for the scheme to work as Channel crossings have risen to a record high under their watch, despite a promise in the Labour manifesto to “smash the gangs”.
Row as crossings continue
A row broke out on Wednesday afternoon after Mr Philp shared footage from Calais showing migrants making the journey from France to England.
The senior Tory claimed this showed the government’s deal “is not deterring anyone”.
Dame Angela Eagle, the border security minister, accused him of being a “hypocrite”, saying thousands of people crossed the Channel while the Tories tried and failed to get their Rwanda scheme going.
She said the deal with France “will take time and it will be hard” but insisted it will ” make an important contribution to the all-out assault we are waging against the business model of the smuggling gangs, which was allowed to flourish and grow for six years while your government was in charge”.
“That is the difference between having a serious and comprehensive plan to fix this crisis, and just standing in a boat pointing at it. I hope you’re getting a nice tan, though,” she said.
The deal with France is one of a number of measures the government has implemented to crack down on small boat crossings.
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Ministers have refused to say how many people could be sent back across the Channel, claiming that would benefit smuggling gangs.
However, reports have suggested that about 50 a week could be sent to France – a small number compared to the 800 people every week on average who have arrived in the UK via small boats this year.
Bruno Retailleau, France’s interior minister, said the agreement “establishes an experimental mechanism whose goal is clear: to smash the gangs”.
The initial agreement will be in place until June 2026.
Homelessness minister Rushanara Ali has resigned after reportedly hiking the rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds – something described by one of her tenants as “extortion”.
That was just weeks after the previous tenants’ contract ended, The i Paper said.
Four tenants who rented a house in east London from Ms Ali were sent an email last November saying their lease would not be renewed, and which also gave them four months’ notice to leave, the newspaper reported.
The property was then re-listed with a £700 rent increase within weeks, the publication added.
In a letter to the prime minister, Ms Ali said that remaining in her role would be a “distraction from the ambitious work of this government”.
She added: “Further to recent reporting, I wanted to make it clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements.
“I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.”
Laura Jackson, one of Ms Ali’s former tenants, said she and three others collectively paid £3,300 in rent.
Weeks after she and her fellow tenants had left, the self-employed restaurant owner said she saw the house re-listed with a rent of around £4,000.
“It’s an absolute joke,” she said. “Trying to get that much money from renters is extortion.”
Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Ali’s work in government would leave a ‘lasting legacy’. Pic: PA
Ms Ali’s house, rented on a fixed-term contract, was put up for sale while the tenants were living there, and was only relisted as a rental because it had not sold, according to The i Paper.
The government’s Renters’ Rights Bill includes measures to ban landlords who end a tenancy to sell a property from re-listing it for six months.
The Bill, which is nearing its end stages of scrutiny in Parliament, will also abolish fixed-term tenancies and ensure landlords give four months’ notice if they want to sell their property.
Something Sir Keir’s increasingly unpopular government could have done without
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “Do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house then hiked the rent.
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: a degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said the government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
She was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000, a rent increase of more than 20%.
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Responding to her resignation, shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said: “I said that her actions were total hypocrisy and that she should go if the accusations were shown to be true.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “Rushanara Ali fundamentally misunderstood her role. Her job was to tackle homelessness, not to increase it.”
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Previously, a spokesperson for Ms Ali said the tenants “stayed for the entirety of their fixed term contract, and were informed they could stay beyond the expiration of the fixed term, while the property remained on the market, but this was not taken up, and they decided to leave the property”.
The prime minister thanked Ms Ali for her “diligent work” and for helping to “deliver this government’s ambitious agenda”.
Sir Keir Starmer said her work in putting in measures to repeal the Vagrancy Act would have a “significant impact”.
And he said she had been trying to encourage “more people to engage and participate in our democracy”, something that would leave a “lasting legacy”.
Politics
Rushanara Ali: Humiliating demise for Labour minister after a most egregious case of double standards
Rushanara Ali’s swift and humiliating demise is a classic example of paying the price for the politician’s crime of “do as I say, not as I do”.
She was Labour’s minister for homelessness, for goodness’ sake, yet she ejected tenants from her near-£1m town house and then hiked the rent.
Politics Hub: Minister’s resignation as it happened
A more egregious case of ministerial double standards it would be difficult to imagine. She had to go and was no doubt told by 10 Downing Street to go quickly.
Rushanara Ali reportedly hiked the rent on a property she owns. Pic: PA
‘A heavy heart’ – really?
MP for the East End constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, Ms Ali was the very model of a modern Labour minister: A degree in PPE from Oxford University.
In her resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, she said she is quitting “with a heavy heart”. Really? She presumably didn’t have a heavy heart when she ejected her four tenants.
She’d previously spoken out against “private renters being exploited” and said her government would “empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases”.
The now former minister was charging her four former tenants £3,300 a month. Yet after they moved out, she charged her new tenants £4,000 – a rent increase of more than 20%.
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The report about the Labour MP first emerged in the i newspaper. Pic: UK Parliament
A fragile constituency for Labour?
In an area represented by the left-wing firebrand George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, Ms Ali had a majority of under 1,700 at the election last year.
Ominously for Labour, an independent candidate was second and the Greens third. No doubt Jeremy Corbyn’s new party will also stand next time.
In her resignation letter to the PM, Ms Ali said continuing in her ministerial role would be a distraction. Too right.
A distraction Sir Keir and his increasingly unpopular government could have done without.
Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Adriana Kugler announced her resignation on Aug. 1, paving the way for a Trump nominee at the US central bank.
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