The problems with Rishi’s Rwanda Plan B  

Welcome to Friday’s Early Edition from i.

It looked like it was all over. On Monday Suella Braverman was sacked, and on Wednesday the Rwanda deportation policy she had so fervently championed was deemed – once more – unlawful, this time by Britain’s highest court. The unanimous decision by five Supreme Court justices said that sending asylum seekers to the East African nation would put them at risk of refoulement – which means being sent to a country where they could be persecuted, tortured or killed. But their powerful words have not deterred Rishi Sunak. Since the ruling, the Prime Minister has pledged to develop a fresh treaty with the nation, while introducing emergency legislation to end the “merry-go-round” of legal challenges to stop “systemic challenges” in the domestic courts. He told parliament yesterday that ministers were “working extremely hard to make sure that we can get a plane off as planned in the spring”. Mr Sunak is under pressure from some sections of his party to deliver on his pledge to “stop the boats” – especially as a general election looms. But the revised plans appear far from watertight – even coming in for criticism from one Ms Braverman. We’ll look at the issues raised, after the headlines.

 Today’s news, and why it matters

 The Government’s promised 40 “new” hospitals will never be built on time and will probably be too small even if they are ever completed, a damning report by MPs has found. The programme, a key election promise by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has been marked by “slower progress and higher costs than promised”, according to the Public Accounts Committee.

I’ll ban no fault evictions on Labour’s first day in power, says Angela Rayner. With a general election around the corner, and her party ahead in the polls, the shadow Levelling Up Secretary is setting out her plans to fix Britain’s housing crisis. Vicky Spratt reports.

A woman who died of bowel cancer was denied benefits in the last months of her life after she was noted to be “well nourished” – despite weighing just six stone. Mother-of-three Carol Sands, from Essex, who died at the age of 56, could not afford to give up her job running a homelessness charity shop despite battling bowel cancer through gruelling chemotherapy sessions and watching her weight plummet.

A world-first gene therapy billed as a potential cure for two inherited blood disorders has been authorised by the UK’s medicines regulator. The treatment for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, called Casgevy, is the first to be licensed using the gene-editing tool known as Crispr, for which its inventors were awarded the Nobel prize in 2020.

Two boys aged 12 have been charged with the murder of a 19-year-old man in Wolverhampton who was stabbed to death. Ambulance crews were called to land off Laburnum Road, East Park, on Monday and found Shawn Seesahai with critical injuries.

Five Metropolitan Police officers and three former officers are being investigated for gross misconduct over the handling of the investigation into the murders by serial killer Stephen Port.

An ironing board has been abandoned at the top of Ben Nevis, provoking fury among hikers. It is thought the board was left after someone used it to do “extreme ironing”, a craze that began in Leicester in 1997 and involves people ironing in remote or unusual locations.

Five problems with Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Plan B:

The Lords could block it: Two Tory former attorneys general warned the PM’s plans to strike a new treaty with Rwanda was likely to “run into trouble” in the Lords. Sir Geoffrey Cox and Dominic Grieve also predicted a major row with international judges including in the European Court of Human Rights that sets up a potentially seismic clash between Mr Sunak and right-wing Tories, who do not believe he will go far enough. Mr Grieve said: “It is extraordinary and I think they are going to run into trouble because firstly they may not get this legislation through the House of Lords.” Sir Geoffrey also suggested Mr Sunak may have to be willing to “push the frontiers” of the UN Refugee Convention, giving the example of the United States in Mexico, if he wants to get his plan through the international courts. Read the full story here.

Time: The other problem posed by legislation going through the Lords is how long it might take before the next election. Law professor Gavin Phillipson at Bristol university explained in a hypothetical scenario how easily it could be held up. In a thread on X he writes: “Under the Parliament Acts, the Lords can delay bills by up to a year. To bypass the Lords the Commons has to pass it twice, with at least a year between the first Commons Second Reading and the second time’s Third Reading. The Lords generally gives way to the will of the Commons, sometimes after insisting on amendments several times. In this case the House may decide to dig in; if it forced delay of the legislation by a year that could make it too late to pass it before the next General Election.”

That little matter of human rights and international law: Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said the PM’s “determination to push ahead with shipping men, women and children off to Rwanda, after they have fled war, terror and persecution in countries such as Afghanistan and Sudan, shows a callous disregard for those who through no fault of their own have lost everything and have come to the UK in search of safety. It will have devastating consequences for the wellbeing of those we work with at the Refugee Council, who are already highly distressed, anxious and traumatised, and we fear many people will disappear, facing the risk of abuse and exploitation.” Human rights lawyers have also questioned how emergency legislation would get around the courts. Adam Wagner, a human rights barrister at Doughty Street chambers, told the Guardian: “You can’t change cultures by agreements and, secondly, the court said it didn’t trust Rwanda to honour the agreement. So those are the facts. They’ve got to change and I can’t see how they can change those facts without actually changing the reality on the ground. Legislation won’t change those facts and neither will a treaty.” And Alexander Horne, a former parliamentary lawyer, also told the paper that changing “our domestic law is not going to cure your breach of international laws and the supreme court was very clear that you have the refugee convention, the European convention on human rights, the United Nations convention against torture – there’s a whole gamut of these things”.

Many voters aren’t in favour of the policy: A survey this week suggested pushing ahead with the plan still might not be a big vote winner. A survey by YouGov shared with i found Brits are more in favour of scrapping the Rwanda policy than keeping it, while more than half believe the UK should remain a member of the European Convention of Human Rights. Nearly four in 10 – 39 per cent – of respondents believe Rishi Sunak should abandon his flagship small boats policy rather than trying to rework the plans. Read the full story here.

Some Tories want it to go further: The MPs from the New Conservative group, established by those elected in 2019 after the Brexit vote, are demanding that the Prime Minister take a “belt and braces” approach to ensure his proposed emergency legislation can override any legal action on human rights grounds. An insider for the New Conservatives told i that around 24 MPs have signed a letter calling for the proposed bill to be “belt and braces” and “over-engineered” to “make sure we get it right first time”. The caucus has three specific demands when it comes to the emergency legislation. The first is the introduction of so-called “notwithstanding” clauses – which would give the legislation the power to override other legal requirements – such as those linked to human rights. More controversially, it wants the legislation to actively disapply the Human Rights Act and it also wants the Government to give itself powers to block “pyjama injunctions”, when last-minute legal challenges are made to prevent flights from taking off. Read more about that, here. In addition, Suella Braverman has stuck her oar in with a five-point plan on the issue, warning the PM his plan will mean no flights take off before a general election. She has proposed that new legislation be laid in Westminster to “exclude all avenues of legal challenge” so that international obligations, such as the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights, are “disapplied by way of clear ‘notwithstanding clauses’”. She also suggested Parliament sit over Christmas to ensure the new emergency law can be passed before next year.

So what other options does the Government now have? From leaving the ECHR to ignoring the ruling and sending them anyway, these are the options the government has.

 Around the world

 The director of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza raided this week by Israeli soldiers says the facility has now run out of oxygen and water, and patients “are screaming from thirst”. Muhammad Abu Salmiya said the conditions were “tragic” and that Israeli troops had blown up the hospital’s main water line.

A group of Israeli soldiers surrounded by rubble in Gaza recently filmed a statement describing their mission. “Occupy. Deport. Settle,” one concluded. Israel is increasingly facing questions over what happens “the day after”. While the US and much of the international community envisage a form of Palestinian self-government, Israel’s radical settlers are staking a claim for the territory. Keiron Monks reports.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron has eased concerns in Kyiv over the West’s support for Ukraine by assuring President Volodymyr Zelensky that the war is the UK’s top security issue, i understands. During a surprise visit to Kyiv, it is understood Lord Cameron updated President Zelensky on UK and allied efforts to train Ukrainian pilots to fly US-made F-16s in preparation for the anticipated arrival of dozens of the fighter jets in the skies over Ukraine in the coming months.

A 45-year-old British remote worker who has lived in Italy since 2014 has said he is probably moving to Portugal after the Rome government moved to cut income tax breaks for expats. Paul Williams, a web designer who bought a little cottage in the countryside near Chieti says he would be sorry to sell his “adorable” rural two-bedroom home, which he bought for €45,000 (£39,000).

 Watch out for…

 SpaceX, which is having its second attempt to launch the world’s largest rocket. The last one, in April, dramatically exploded minutes into the flight. 

 Thoughts for the day

 Charlotte Owen could forever change the House of Lords. Irrespective of what – or who – propelled her to this privileged position, she must not pass that up, argues Simon Kelner.

Bryan Johnson won’t live forever. But he’ll make himself miserable trying. With his millions and his meals made of paste, Morgan Jones says he invites the question: what if the habits of highly effective people suck?

How The Crown pushed the Royal Family’s patience to the limit. I am certain that the reports that William is ‘totally sickened’ by the new series accurately reflect his disgust, writes Jennie Bond.

Culture Break

 I was paralysed doing Daniel Radcliffe’s stunts on Harry Potter. It was still the best job in the world. Former stuntman David Holmes is the subject of a new documentary, ‘The Boy Who Lived’. He talks hope, healing and the importance of male friendship

 The Big Read

 UK’s sewage island: Isle of Wight locals are sick of their home being a ‘dumping ground’. Heavy rainfall has brought the Isle of Wight’s sewage problem into sharp focus. i visits the island to meet the locals blighted by waste.

 Sport

 How Exeter City became the Football League’s most important club. All clubs say they are nothing without fans – at Exeter City it’s true, writes Daniel Storey.

Something to brighten your day

 How to get to sleep – and actually stay asleep. From learning to drift off to reducing how many times you wake up in the night, sleep experts share how to get a better eight hours.