Justin Welby and former Supreme Court president threaten to scupper Rwanda plan
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The Archbishop of Canterbury and a former president of the Supreme Court are threatening to scupper Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan.
The Most Rev Justin Welby and Baroness Hale, who declared Boris Johnson’s attempt to prorogue Parliament illegal, have together tabled amendments to the Rwanda Bill that would delay and potentially derail the plans to deport asylum seekers.
Their first amendment requires a ruling from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) that Rwanda was safe for asylum seekers to be laid before Parliament before migrants could be deported to the central African state.
Two weeks ago, the UNHCR issued an analysis that found the Rwanda Bill and its accompanying legally binding treaty “incompatible” with international refugee law.
It is understood to be the first Lords amendment ever laid by Lady Hale, who became a prominent figure in Westminster in 2019 when, as president of the Supreme Court, she declared Mr Johnson’s attempt to prorogue Parliament to secure his Brexit deal unlawful.
The Rwanda Bill secured its second reading on Monday after peers voted by 206 votes to 84 to reject a Liberal Democrat motion to block the progress of the legislation.
However, the Government now faces a major battle with the Lords after the legislation was heavily criticised during the debate by four Tory peers including Lord Clarke, a former chancellor and home secretary, bishops, leading lawyers and diplomats.
It now goes into its committee stage in 10 days for line-by-line consideration, with Lady Hale and the Most Rev Welby, supported by Shami Chakrabarti, the human rights lawyer, among nearly a dozen peers who have laid amendments that water down the Bill.
Lady Hale has also put forward amendments that would restore the ability of UK courts and tribunals to grant legal challenges against the legislation and reverse attempts by the Government to disapply human rights laws.
The changes, if backed by the Lords, would neuter the Bill’s proposed block on systemic challenges against the legislation under international law including the Refugee Convention, and its limits on claims by individual migrants to those where they face a real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm if deported.
A further amendment also seeks to limit the power of ministers to ignore Rule 39 injunctions by Strasbourg judges, one of which was used in June 2022 to block the first deportation flight to Rwanda.
Lady Hale’s proposal would ensure the Government gave “proper regard” to such injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights “in accordance with international law”.
Other peers have also laid amendments that could delay the first Rwanda deportation flights beyond the spring, when Mr Sunak has said he hopes the first will take off, and potentially until after the next general election.
Lord Hope of Craighead, a leading Scottish judge, has tabled an amendment that would allow the Bill to pass but would only allow the Government to implement the legislation once “the arrangements provided for in the Rwanda treaty have been fully implemented and are being adhered to in practice”.
The move is designed to give legislative backing to a report by a Lords committee that demanded flights should not go ahead until Rwanda and the UK had put in place 10 legal safeguards and infrastructure changes to ensure that the country was safe for asylum seekers.
Lord Carlile of Berriew, a prominent crossbench peer and former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, predicted that such an amendment would win the backing of a majority of the chamber as several Conservative peers have voiced support.
He said it was now up to the Government to decide whether it wanted to accept the Lords’ advice to ensure it got a “proper Bill” or steamroller its legislation through the upper house.
“It is going to be a vivid and energetic committee and report stage,” said Lord Carlile. “It may be a short Bill, but there is a can of worms creeping out of every corner.”
