Ministers could stop ECHR judges blocking migrant Rwanda flights under rebel Tory MP amendments

The Tory MPs say that the new measures backed by former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and Sir Bill Cash with the support of an initial group of more than 30 MPs, will stop judges on the European Court of Human Rights from frustrating ministers’ implementation of the Rwanda plan.

Jenrick, who resigned as Immigration minister over weaknesses in the Government’s Rwanda bill, said: “The stakes for the country could not be higher.

“If we don’t fix this Bill the country will be consigned to more illegal crossings, more farcical migrant hotels and billions more of wasted taxpayers’ money in the years to come.

“The Bill as drafted simply will not work because it doesn’t end the merry-go-round of legal challenges that frustrate removals. I’ve seen the legal advice and operational plans where this was painfully apparent.

“That’s why colleagues and I have tabled a set of amendments that block small boat arrivals making individual claims and prevent Rule 39 pyjama injunctions from Strasbourg grounding planes.

“Parliament isn’t a parish council, it’s our sovereign legislative body. The power to solve this crisis is in our hands and the responsibility on our shoulders.

“If the Government truly want to stop the boats, it should adopt these amendments and use parliament’s power to deliver on the repeated promises we have made the public.”

As well as stopping “pyjama injunctions” which would frustrate efforts to deport migrants, illegal migrants will also be blocked from bringing individual claims to suspend flights in all but a limited set of circumstances under the tweaks to the Bill.

• Sir Ed Davey’s role in the Horizon scandal is ‘at best, a gross error of judgement’ says Farage
• Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs wants the military to feel ‘best version of themselves'
• Davey refuses to hand back knighthood over Post Office scandal as Lib Dem leader denies blame

The amendments are designed to close off the vast majority of routes to legal challenge by migrants while leaving a few exceptions such as when a migrant is medically unfit to fly - including pregnancy for instance - or when they are under 18.

The MPs say have received formal advice from leading constitutional lawyers which demonstrates that their amendments do not breach international law.

Among the initial group of MPs supporting the amendments are former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan-Smith, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, former Cabinet Ministers Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Sir Simon Clarke, Sir Jake Berry and Sir John Redwood, as well as leaders of the New Conservatives Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates and European Research Group chairman Mark Francois.

The so-called “five families” of right-wing Tory MPs said last month that they were worried that the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill will not deliver on Sunak's commitment to “stop the boats”.

The Bill passed the House of Commons by 313 votes to 269 after not a single Conservative MP voted against the Bill.

But the leaders of the five groups on the Tory Right – including the European Research Group and Commons Sense Group - warned that they would try to defeat the Bill at the next reading unless it was significantly hardened in the coming weeks.

Sunak was asked on Monday at a PM Connect event with voters at Accrington Stanley Football Club near Wigan, Lancashire on Monday how he will convince members of his own party that the Bill was not “legally flawed”.

He replied: “If people have bright ideas about how we can make this more effective whilst complying with our international obligations and retaining Rwanda’s participation in the scheme… then of course, I’m open to having those discussions.

“But I have worked on it for a very long time, so I’m confident that it is a good deal and it will do the job for us.”