Opt out of human rights laws or fail, Suella warns Rishi

SUELLA Braverman warned last night that Rishi Sunak’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda will fail unless he opts out of human rights laws.

Days after being sacked by the Prime Minister, the former home secretary set out her own five-point plan to end the deadlock over deportations.

In an article for the Daily Telegraph, she dismisses Mr Sunak’s solution – of signing a treaty with Rwanda then passing a law declaring it a safe country – as merely a ‘tweaked version’ of the failed Plan A.

And she warns it will not enable flights to take off before next year’s general election, as the PM has promised, since it would still have to go back through the courts.

Mrs Braverman’s alternative proposal for emergency legislation is a bill that would block ‘all avenues of legal challenge’ against planned deportations, by excluding them from the ‘entirety’ of domestic and European human rights laws.

She also demands amendments to the existing agreement with the east African country to deal with the concerns raised by the Supreme Court, along with automatic detention for illegal migrants and a time limit before they are removed.

And she wants a commitment for the Bill to be published before the Christmas recess, with MPs recalled to debate it over the festive season.

‘There is no longer any chance of stopping the boats within the current legal framework,’ she writes.

But she insists the Government must move forward, adding: ‘This requires honesty. Above all, it demands of the Government an end to self- deception and spin. There must be no more magical thinking. Tinkering with a failed plan will not stop the boats.’

Her latest dramatic intervention, following her scathing resignation letter on Tuesday, came after senior Tories urged their colleagues to stop talking about leadership challenges and get behind Mr Sunak.

Sources on the Tory Right indicated that Mrs Braverman and her supporters plan to step up their attacks on the Government as she tries to build backing as a precursor for a leadership bid.

Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson yesterday said talk of a leadership contest was ‘absolute nonsense’.

Under party rules, 53 Tory MPs must call for a contest.