The United Kingdom president Rishi Sunak on Wednesday 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 according to him the emergency legislation presented in a parliamentary 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 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 microblogging platform, 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” 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 this is the toughest piece of illegal migration legislation ever put forward by the UK government.
The unexpected move by Sunak’s cabinet minister comes at a time when he is finetuning his general election pitch for 2024. Even the Opposition Labour Party reacted by saying that it is a “chaotic government”.
The Sunak government has stated that the Rwanda Bill was the toughest immigartion legislation ever introduced and it would be fast-tracked through the parliament. 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.
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