Boris Johnson and Priti Patel support MP’s bid to start deportation flights to Rwanda immediately | Politics news

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Boris Johnson and Priti Patel are among the top Tory MPs backing an attempt to bypass the European Court of Human Rights and begin deportation flights to Rwanda immediately.

Conservative MP Jonathan Jules will introduce a bill to parliament on Wednesday aimed at circumventing the Strasbourg court that blocked the controversial scheme.

The pressure on Rishi Sunak is likely to double as he has the support of high-ranking Conservatives including Johnson, the former prime minister, and Ms Patel, the former home secretary.

Patel announced plans to deport asylum seekers to the east African country in April to crack down on Channel crossings, but despite the government paying Rwanda £140m, no flights have yet taken off due to a series of legal challenges over the summer. .

Several Tory MPs expressed outrage after the European Court of Human Rights intervened for 11 hours in June and blocked the first scheduled deportation.

Mr Jolis told The Telegraph that the Asylum Seekers (Removal to Safe Countries) Bill would ensure “that the final say on legislative matters lies with Parliament, not the judges in a supra-national quasi-legislative court in Strasbourg”.

The Stoke-on-Trent North MP will present his plans with the Ten Minute Rule Bill, which allows a lower house MP to make his case for a new bill in a speech lasting up to ten minutes.

Former ministers Nadine Dorris and Jacob Rees-Mogg also support the legislation.

Mr Sunak has vowed to crack down on immigration, and on Tuesday unveiled a raft of laws aimed at stopping people from crossing the canal.

He said this would include resuming the Rwanda Plan, which has been widely criticized by opposition parties, refugee charities and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Image: MP Jonathan Jules introduces a bill aimed at circumventing the European Commission on Human Rights

Read more: Why does Sunak’s five-point immigration plan target Albanians?

Nassar Abdullah, an Iranian asylum-seeker, told Sky News how he “wanted to die” when he was put on a flight to the country after arriving in the UK on a small boat – and still lives in fear he could be sent there.

“If they were going to send me to Rwanda, I wish I had stayed in Iran and they would have killed me there,” he said.

A decision is due imminently on whether the government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda is legal.

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2:28 “I was confined to my seat” on a flight to Rwanda

The Home Office argues that the Rwanda scheme will help break the business model of people smugglers who facilitate illegal migration, but critics have raised concerns about human rights abuses in Rwanda and say there is no evidence it will prevent the flow of crossings through the canal.

More than 40,000 migrants have crossed the canal this year – a huge increase in 2021, when the number was less than 29,000.

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