PM vows to push through Rwanda plan after court rules it unlawful

Rishi Sunak has staked his political credibility on pushing through emergency legislation to resurrect his high-profile plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda after the supreme court ruled it unlawful yesterday.

- Rajeev Syal , Peter Walker , Rowena Mason

During a combative press conference hastily arranged after the five judges unanimously rejected the proposal, Sunak said legislation would end the "merry-go-round" of legal challenges by setting out in law that Rwanda was safe.

Amid increasing pressure from the right of the Conservative party to commit to withdrawing from the European convention on human rights (ECHR), Sunak said he would "not allow a foreign court to block these flights", but declined to say how. "I am prepared to do what is necessary to get flights off. I will not take the easy way out," the prime minister said, standing at a lectern bearing the "stop the boats" slogan. A parallel plan for a new international treaty with Rwanda would provide "guarantees in law" that people deported from the UK would not be returned to their home countries, he added. While a treaty would formalise the previous memorandum of understanding with Rwanda, Whitehall sources said this could take more than a year and then be challenged in the courts.

The supreme court judgment, read out by Lord Reed, its president, said all five judges agreed with the appeal court that there was a real risk of asylum claims being wrongly determined in Rwanda, resulting in people being returned to their country of origin to face persecution.

He pointed to evidence from the United Nations' refugee agency, the UNHCR, which highlighted the failure of a similar deportation agreement between Israel and Rwanda.