Suella Braverman warned the Tories face “electoral oblivion” if emergency legislation aimed at saving Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan is not watertight.
Addressing the Commons, the former home secretary set out five key tests for the Bill promised by the Prime Minister after the Supreme Court ruled the flagship policy was unlawful.
She told MPs: “It is now or never. The Conservative Party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months if we introduce yet another Bill destined to fail. Do we fight for sovereignty or let our party die?
“I refuse to sit by and allow us to fail. The trust that millions of people placed in us be discarded as an inconvenient detail.
“If we summon the political courage to do what is truly necessary, difficult though it may be to fight for the British people we will regain their trust. And, if the Prime Minister leads that fight, he will have my total support.”
Emergency legislation to deem Rwanda a safe destination is due within days after Home Secretary James Cleverly yesterday signed a new legally binding treaty with Kigali.
Setting out her five tests for the Bill, Mrs Braverman said: “Firstly, the Bill must address the Supreme Courtโs concerns about the safety of Rwanda.
“Second, the Bill must enable flights before the next election by blocking off all routes of challenge.
“The powers to detain and remove must be exercisable notwithstanding the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Refugee Convention, and all other international law.
“Third, the Bill must remedy deficiencies in the Illegal Migration Act to ensure that removals can take place within days of people arriving illegally, rather than allowing individual challenges which could drag on for months.
“Fourth, the Bill must enable the administrative detention of illegal arrivals until they are removed.
“And, just as we rapidly built Nightingale hospitals to deal with Covid, so too we must build nightingale style detention facilities to deliver the necessary capacity. Greece and Turkey have done similarly. The only way to do this, as I advocated for in Government, is with support from the MoD.
“And fifth, Parliament should be prepared to sit over Christmas to get this Bill passed.”
It comes as Rishi Sunak is under intense pressure to deliver on his pledge to stop small boats.
In a major setback last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the policy was unlawful due to concerns asylum seekers sent to the African nation could be returned to their country of origin.
The Prime Minister now faces a split within his party on how far to go to get flights off the ground.
Right-wingers are demanding hardline action, with members of the European Research Group (ERG), Common Sense Group and New Conservatives set to meet tonight for the third time in as many days.
However centrist MPs from the One Nation caucus have warned against overriding the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
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