Tory civil war as MP likens Braverman's Rwanda plan to 'what Putin and Xi do'
A senior Tory MP has likened Suella Braverman's new Rwanda proposal to the actions of Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping.
The extraordinary in-fighting came after the ex-Home Secretary suggested introducing emergency powers to exclude "all avenues of legal challenge" in a bid to get flights off the ground.
Hitting out at her comments the Tory MP Damian Green said it was the "most unconservative statement I have ever heard from a Conservative politician". He added: "Giving the state explicit power to override every legal constraint is what [Vladimir] Putin and Xi [Jinping] do. We absolutely cannot go there".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added: "Conservatives believe in a democratic country run by the rule of law and dictators - Xi and Putin - would prefer to have the state completely untrammelled by any law."
This week the Supreme Court unanimously torpedoed Rishi Sunak's plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, ruling the project already costing £140million is unlawful. The Tory leader has since pledged to introduce "emergency legislation" to resurrect the proposals by having Parliament deem Rwanda a "safe country".
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But in an article for the Telegraph, Ms Braverman, who was sacked from the Cabinet on Monday, warned flights will not take off before the election under the plan. She said: "To try and deliver flights to Rwanda under any new treaty would still require going back through the courts, a process that would likely take at least another year.
"Even if we won in the domestic court, the saga would simply relocate to Strasbourg where the European court would take its time deciding if it liked our laws. "That is why the plan outlined by the PM will not yield flights to Rwanda before an election if Plan B is simply a tweaked version of the failed Plan A."
The former Cabinet minister proposed "five tests" including the incendiary suggestion of excluding the prospect of legal challenges to the Government's plan.
She wrote: "The Bill must enable flights before the next general election. Legislation must therefore circumvent the lengthy process of further domestic litigation, to ensure that flights can take off as soon as the new Bill becomes law. To do this, the Bill must exclude all avenues of legal challenge. "
The right-wing Conservative also suggested Parliament sit over Christmas to ensure the new emergency law can be passed before next year.
On Thursday the Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt refused to commit to asylum seekers being sent to the east African country in 2024 - or before the next election. He said: "We are hopeful that because of the solutions that the Prime Minister announced yesterday we will be able to get flights off to Rwanda next year. We can't guarantee that."
Speaking on BBC Question Time, the Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she hoped Tory ministers "give up" on the "unworkable" and Rwanda plan. She added: "I agree with the new Home Secretary who described the policy as being batshit. It's just not going to work, it's not the right approach. It's costing us £140million".
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