Sunak Hints UK May Leave ECHR to Save Rwanda Plan

A group of people thought to be illegal immigrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the English Channel on March 30, 2024. Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has signalled that he'd take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to save the government’s Rwanda plan.

Mr. Sunak said border security and controlling illegal migration is “more important” than membership of any foreign court in an interview on Wednesday.

Under the government’s plan, eligible illegal immigrants will be sent swiftly to Rwanda, where they will be granted asylum or allowed to settle via other routes.

However, some Tory backbenchers have argued that the plan won’t work unless foreign courts are barred from intervening under legally binding international human rights treaties.

In January, Síofra O’Leary, president of the European Court of Human Rights (also ECHR), suggested that the UK could be breaching the ECHR if it ignores injunctions issued by the court.

Meanwhile, the court ECHR said last week that it had tightened the rule on when injunctions can be granted.

Asked if he’s prepared to pull the UK out of the ECHR, Mr. Sunak insisted that he believes the Rwanda policy is compliant with the treaty in an interview with The Sun’s “Never Mind The Ballots” programme on Wednesday but gave his strongest hint yet that pulling out of the treaty is on the table. 

“I believe that our scheme, including the Rwanda part of it, all our plans to tackle illegal migration ... are compliant with all our international obligations, including the ECHR. But I believe that border security and controlling illegal migration is more important than our membership of any foreign court,” he said.

Sunak: Labour Has No Plan

Pitching his party’s policy on illegal immigration against Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, Mr. Sunak said he’s got a plan and has not seen the opposition leader offering an alternative.

He defended the Rwanda plan, saying would-be illegal immigrants need to know they won’t be able to stay. He also defended the government’s record, saying Albanians have “stopped coming” on small boats after arrivals were returned.

The prime minister has previously ruled out holding a May general election along with local elections. He refused to confirm a date on Wednesday, saying the working assumption remains that the election will be held in the second half of the year.

Labour, which is enjoying a commanding lead in the polls, oppose the plan to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda.

Speaking to the same programme a week ago, Sir Keir repeated his claim that the Rwanda scheme is a “gimmick,” saying he will be “knocking on the doors of our European leaders to say we need to crack this with a joint task force to track and break these [people smuggling] gangs.”

For the past three years, small boat arrivals accounted for around 80 percent of all detected irregular migration in the UK.

A total of 29,437 people made the journey across the English Channel in 2023, down from a peak of 45,755 in 2022.

By Tuesday, some 5,435 illegal immigrants have arrived on small boats this year, the highest compared to the same period in any year since record began in 2018. This has brought the total number of detected small boat arrivals to 119,757. 

Voters Not Confident About Either Party on Immigration

According to polls, Labour appears set to win a landslide victory, with some of the Conservative votes going to Reform UK.

The worst poll for the government so far suggested the Conservative Party, which won 365 seats in 2019, would be wiped out in Scotland and Wales and hold just 98 seats in England. The seat-by-seat analysis by Survation suggested a number of ministers could lose their seats, and the prime minister has just a 2.4 percent lead over Labour.

Prominent pollster and political commentator Matthew Goodwin previously told The Epoch Times that the results of his survey show Reform is “drawing together a significant, distinctive following of voters who share intense concerns“ about illegal and legal immigration, net zero, and globalisation, and are ”deeply pessimistic about where Britain is heading.”

YouGov trackers suggest voters believe Labour would be better than the Conservatives at handling all major issues apart from defence and security.

On asylum and immigration, 60 percent of respondents chose other, don’t know, or none, while the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties got 15, 19, and 7 percent points, respectively.

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which the government hopes would underpin its Rwanda policy, is set to go back to the Commons on April 15 when MPs return from Easter recess.