Sunak’s asylum plan is scuppered
Rishi Sunak was able to enjoy just three hours of good news that one of his key pledges – to halve inflation by the end of the year – had been met before he suffered a serious setback on another target, to stop the small boats.
A luckier prime minister might have had a full 24-hour news cycle to capitalise on the success of inflation dipping below 5 per cent, even though this measure is largely out of his government’s control.
The rejection by the Supreme Court of his Rwanda asylum policy has sparked fury among his MPs, with many – including the recently sacked home secretary Suella Braverman – using it as a reason to accuse the Prime Minister as weak on immigration.
In response to the court ruling, Mr Sunak said he will introduce emergency legislation to block legal challenges to the policy and to “confirm Rwanda is safe”.
He still plans flights this spring. Yet does anyone really believe the Prime Minister can get flights into the air within months, and potentially weeks before a May general election?
Allies of Mr Sunak believe the scale of the threat to his premiership from Ms Braverman and other MPs is insubstantial.
Many Conservative MPs already face the threat of losing their seats in an election that could be just six months away, and realise it is not the time for yet another change of leader.
Nevertheless, Mr Sunak has little choice other than to talk a big game on immigration, and claim he is getting tough against “foreign courts”, or else the restlessness of Tory MPs will increase.
He will probably fail to meet his pledge to stop the small boats by the next election, but at least he can tell voters that he tried.
