Suella Braverman blames 'phoney humanitarianism' for stop the boats policy setbacks
By ITV News Westminster Producer, Lucy McDaid
Suella Braverman has blamed "phoney humanitarianism" for holding back the Government's plans to tackle small boat crossings, after its Rwanda deportation policy was ruled unlawful.
Speaking to MPs after what she called a "disappointing" Court of Appeal ruling, the home secretary said the government will do "whatever it takes" to carry out its 'stop the boats' policy.
On Thursday, judges overruled a High Court decision from December last year that declared the Home office's controversial plans to send migrants to Rwanda as lawful.
The government said it will now appeal to the Supreme Court in a bid to pursue the policy - which is a cornerstone of Rishi Sunak's pledge to stop small boats crossing the Channel.
A defiant Ms Braverman told MPs in the Commons that Court of Appeal judges didn't rule Rwanda to be an unsafe third country.
Instead, she said, they concluded "there was a possibility they could be returned to other countries from Rwanda where they may suffer ill-treatment."
"It is therefore simply incorrect to say that the Court of Appeal has found that conditions in Rwanda make it unsafe for individuals there," she added.
But when delivering his verdict on Thursday, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett declared "Rwanda is not a safe third country" because of a "real risk that any person sent" to the east African nation "will be removed to their home country when in fact they have a good case to asylum".
The court ruled that sending a migrant to Rwanda would breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It is 'simply incorrect', says Suella Braverman, 'to say that the Court of Appeal has found that conditions in Rwanda make it unsafe for individuals there'
The Rwanda deportation policy, prioritised by Rishi Sunak's government in a bid to win over voters at the next General Election, has been plagued with controversy from the start.
But both the prime minister and home secretary have repeatedly made clear their commitment to reducing small boat crossings, and despite another setback, have insisted they will do whatever it takes to get flights taking off for Rwanda with migrants on-board.
Ms Braverman told MPs on Thursday: "This judgment is disappointing for the majority of the British people who have repeatedly voted for controlled migration and for all those who want to see us deliver on our moral and democratic imperative to stop the boats."
She added: "The British people will no longer indulge in the polite fiction that we have a duty or infinite capacity to support everyone in the world who is fleeing persecution, nor anyone that would simply like to come here to improve their lot and succeeds in making it to our shores.
"That abuse is unfair on local communities forced to absorb thousands of illegal arrivals and the pressure on public services and social cohesion that this entails."
She said she hopes the process of appealing to the Supreme Court will be "swift", while campaigners have called on her to drop the plans completely.
'The British people will no longer indulge in the polite fiction that we have a duty or infinite capacity to support everyone in the world who is fleeing persecution', says Suella Braverman
Ms Braverman clashed with Yvette Cooper, who accused the government of failing to provide concrete solutions and instead resorting to "gimmicks", an insult echoed by the Party's leader Sir Keir Starmer.
The shadow home secretary told the Commons: "Even the Lord Chief Justice, who finds the scheme could be lawful, has said it only is on the basis that the scheme is small, just 100 people.
"The Home Secretary talks today again about thousands of people being sent. The Lord Chief Justice says the talk of Rwanda within a few years being a destination for thousands of asylum seekers is political hyperbole."
She went on: "So, two questions for the Home Secretary: does she agree with the Lord Chief Justice that thousands is political hyperbole, and that even if she succeeds, it will just be a few hundreds, instead?
"How long is she going to keep wasting all of this taxpayers' money on a failing policy and wasting everybody's time on this ramping up the rhetoric rather than coming up with a serious plan?"
Ms Cooper added: "This is their chaos, their Tory chaos, their boats chaos and their broken asylum system. We don't need more slogans, we need solutions, not more gimmicks. We need a Government with a grip."
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