United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi
Sunak faced a major setback after his Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick
resigned over strong disagreements with the government’s Rwanda policy of
deporting illegal migrants.
Jenrick, considered one of the closest
allies of PM Sunak until now, asserted that the emergency legislation presented
in a parliamentary meeting by Home Secretary James Cleverly did not go far
enough to end the “merry-go-round of legal challenges”.
Significantly, the Safety of Rwanda Bill
that was published a day after Britain signed a new treaty with Rwanda, was
designed to overcome a ruling by the UK Supreme Court that the Government’s
proposed scheme to send thousands of asylum seekers to the East African country
was unlawful.
Responding to Jenrick’s resignation, a
disappointed Sunak stated that his reason to quit from the position was based
on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation.
Taking to X, Jenricks wrote that he
cannot continue with his position when he strongly disagrees with the direction
of the government’s policy on immigration.
The Immigration Minister was of the view
that small boat crossings across the English Channel were doing “untold damage”
to the nation, and in such scenarios the government needs to place national
interests above the highly contested interpretations of the international law.
To this, Sunak countered by saying that the
Rwanda Bill was the toughest immigration legislation ever put forward by the UK
Government and it would be fast-tracked through the Parliament.
The unexpected move by Sunak’s cabinet
minister comes at a time when he is fine tuning his general election pitch for
2024. Even the Opposition Labour Party reacted by saying that it is a “chaotic
government”.
Rishi Sunak added that through this
landmark emergency legislation, the country will control its borders, deter
people taking perilous journeys across the channel, and end the continuous
legal challenges filling the courts of UK.
