Senior MPs in Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party cast doubt on his plan to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats and warned it faces numerous amendments before becoming law.
(Bloomberg) — Senior MPs in Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party cast doubt on his plan to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats and warned it faces numerous amendments before becoming law.
The British prime minister announced legislation last week to put a legal duty on the government to deport migrants who arrive on small boats, as well as banning them from ever seeking citizenship. He later struck a deal with French President Emmanuel Macron for Britain to pay France hundreds of millions of pounds more to help the country police its north coast.
Several Tory MPs, former Prime Minister Theresa May, former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and senior backbencher Simon Hoare, indicated they would only vote for the bill on the understanding that changes would be made to address the bill’s provisions on modern slavery and human trafficking, particularly in regards to women and children.
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May said her main concerns are that the bill places a blanket dismissal of anyone facing persecution who travels to the UK illegally because asylum seekers are often unable to access legal routes. Also, that victims of modern slavery will be “collateral damage” from the bill and be denied support.
She also questioned the effectiveness of the legislation. “Anybody who thinks that this bill will deal with the issue of illegal migration once and for all is wrong,” she told the House of Commons.
Sunak was asked about May’s comments while in San Diego after meeting US President Joe Biden. He insisted his plan is the right way to tackle illegal migration.
“I’m confident that our bill represents the best way to grip this problem,” Sunak told reporters. “I’ve also always been clear that there is no overnight easy one simple solution to what is a complicated problem. It will take lots of different interventions.”
At stake is one of his flagship policies that, if unsuccessful, is likely to dent his chances of regaining popularity in the run-up to a general election that he must call in less than two years.
‘Great Concern’
He’s made stopping the small boats one of five priorities that voters should judge him on, and YouGov surveys show it’s a top-three issue for the electorate, after the economy and health care.
Buckland said he has “great concern” about the bill’s clause on children, which he called to be scrapped, and replaced with provisions to protect unaccompanied children, families and women. He and others urged the government to introduce more safe and legal routes in tandem with the bill.
Meanwhile, right-wing Tories led by backbenchers including former Home Secretary Priti Patel, Simon Clarke and Jonathan Gullis, are debating amendments to make the bill tougher on the European Convention on Human Rights, which the government has conceded it may be in breach of.
They are also upset Sunak is handing more money to France while Macron refuses to sign a “returns” agreement for undocumented migrants. Gullis told the Commons that he wanted to see the bill “beefed up.”
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The UK has already tried to implement deportations, last year introducing a program to relocate some asylum seekers to Rwanda. However, no flights to Rwanda have left the UK yet after the plan was grounded in June last year by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights.
–With assistance from Kitty Donaldson.
(Updates with Sunak comment in sixth paragraph.)
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