'A fully fledged government crisis': Stop-the-boats pledge in tatters

ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston considers what the fallout could be after the Supreme Court ruled the government's asylum policy unlawful

That is quite the Supreme Court judgement. Sunak’s stop-the-boats pledge is in tatters, on the day he claimed victory in the fight against inflation.

And the big problem is that even if he were to capitulate to Braverman’s call to disapply the European Convention on Human Rights with respect to the expulsion of asylum seekers to Rwanda - and his colleagues tell me he is not minded to do that - such a derogation would not legalise the expulsions in British courts, because the UN refugee convention would still apply.

This is a fully fledged government crisis. The new Home Secretary James Cleverly has inherited a debacle of very significant proportions.

The seeming waste of hundreds of millions pounds in fees to Rwanda is a trifle compared with the deep reputational cost to Sunak and his colleagues.

The prime minister will hold a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, presumably to try and salvage his plan to expel asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

Were he to resile from the European Convention on Human Rights, and the UN Refugee Convention and the UK’s Human Rights Act, Sunak would split his cabinet and his parliamentary party.

If he ditches the Rwanda policy, he will split his Cabinet and his parliamentary party. The stakes could not be higher for him.