Sunak can get round human rights as I did

Lord Cameron is urging Conservative rebels to recognise that Rishi Sunak can get his troubled Rwanda scheme up and running without breaking international law as he leads a Cabinet lobbying effort ahead of a crunch vote on Tuesday.

The Foreign Secretary has been deployed by the Prime Minister to win over MPs ahead of the vote on emergency laws to save the Rwanda deportation plan, amid fears that the Government could lose.

i understands that not only is the former prime minister speaking to Tory moderates who may be his more natural allies, but also to MPs across the party, despite the feeling of anger among Brexiteers at his return to the Government last month.

Lord Cameron is making the point that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which right-wingers fear will still be able to block deportation flights to Rwanda under the laws, responds to political pressure.

He is citing his own experience of facing down the Strasbourg court from No 10, when judges ruled that a blanket ban on prisoners’ voting was a breach of their human rights, as evidence Mr Sunak will be able to ignore adverse edicts from the ECHR without legislating to disapply it from the Rwanda scheme, which would risk explicitly breaking international law.

The peer is also emphasising that European allies including Germany and Italy will also be pressing the ECHR to green-light policies that allow the offshoring of asylum seekers as they are pushing for similar schemes amid the growing migration crisis in the continent.

A Government source made clear Mr Sunak was prepared to use existing powers to override ECHR so-called “pyjama injunctions” of the type that grounded the first attempted Rwanda deportation flight in 2022.

It comes despite claims from former home secretary Suella Braverman, who told the Sunday Telegraph that Attorney General Victoria Prentis has advised Mr Sunak ignoring these types of injunction “would be a breach of international law”.

Responding, the source said it is “the Prime Minister” who will make the final decision and that he has made clear he will not let foreign courts block the Rwanda scheme.

A Tory source on the right of the party questioned what Lord Cameron’s “issue” was with calls to disapply the ECHR on Rwanda given he previously refused to rule out quitting the remit of the court in the run-up to the 2015 general election.

“Cameron defied the ECHR on prisoner votes, so he should be happy with pushing back on the ECHR and international law to stop the Channel people smugglers,” the source added.