In British political jargon it is called “parliamentary ping-pong”. It occurs when a law jumps from the House of Commons to the House of Lords and vice versa until one of the two gives in and accepts the opponent’s amendments. The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is willing to close the doors of Parliament this Monday – figuratively speaking – and throw the key into the sea, until he manages to carry out the measure to which he has linked the success or failure of his mandate: the law on the deportation of immigrants to Rwanda. A conspiracy of independent and Labor lords has been blocking the approval of the text with additional modifications for almost four months. Sunak wants to send the first irregulars to the African country before the summer.
There are two final obstacles raised by the Upper House. Labor’s Desmond Browne, who was Minister of Defense in Tony Blair’s Government, has demanded that all those Afghans who collaborated with the British forces during the last invasion of that country be excluded from possible deportations. And the independent David Anderson has managed to forge a coalition of lords that demands the creation of a commission to independently review whether Rwanda is really a safe country to which the management of irregular migrants can be delegated.
“We see again how Labor is trying again to block the law, something that is enormously frustrating. Everyone’s patience is starting to wear thin. Mine, of course,” Sunak warned this Friday. “There will be no more deceptions or delays. [El Parlamento] They are going to meet and vote until the law is approved. And then the flights will begin, to achieve the deterrent effect necessary to solve this problem,” he added.
British deputies and lords are preparing for a long session that may last until early Tuesday morning. The Government has been firm in its refusal to change a single comma of the current text, but it cannot be ruled out that it will finally accept the amendment referring to Afghan collaborators.
Sunak linked the success of his mandate, a few days after entering Downing Street, with the promise of putting a stop to irregular immigration. The slogan Stop the boats (Let’s stop the boats, in reference to the boats with people trying to cross the English Channel) presided over each appearance of the prime minister to address an issue that, according to all the polls, had become the first obsession of conservative voters.
The agreement with Rwanda to begin deporting immigrants was Boris Johnson’s idea, and many of his critics then considered that it was the latest idea to distract public attention from all the scandals that then besieged the prime minister. The idea, however, took flight on its own. Sunak embraced it until it became his own commitment and, since then, the battle between the Government on the one hand, and the courts, Parliament, humanitarian organizations and public opinion on the other has become increasingly bloody.
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In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights suspended at the last minute the first flight destined for Rwanda, on which only half a dozen people had boarded after an avalanche of resources that left many of the immigrants that the Government on the ground. British intended to deport.
Shortly afterwards, it was the UK’s own courts – first an appeal court, and finally the Supreme Court – that declared illegal a plan that raised many uncertainties regarding the safety of deportees.
Under pressure from the hardline wing of his party, which even demanded that the Government ignore the European Convention on Human Rights on immigration, Sunak pulled out of his hat a new legal text, the so-called Rwanda Safety Bill (Act to Proclaim Rwanda a Safe Country). In addition to legally proclaiming, with a voluntaristic tone, that Rwanda is a safe place, in order to calm the possible doubts of the judges, the British Government cut short any possibility that irregular immigrants who were going to be deported could appeal the decision before Justice. Only those who faced a “real, imminent and probable risk of suffering serious and irreversible harm”, who suffered from serious physical or mental illnesses, who had been victims of torture or who were suicidal could be excluded.
It is that law, which paradoxically continues to seem weak and ineffective because it excessively guarantees the most reactionary wing of the Conservative Party, which Sunak wants to approve this Monday at all costs. At least 150 people have already been chosen to carry out the first deportations, which should take place before the summer. The prime minister wants to have a parliamentary victory to offer voters and his own party before May 2. That day municipal elections are held throughout England. The polls predict a new disaster for the torieswhich could lose up to 500 local representatives.
Although Sunak has reiterated his desire that there be no general election until next autumn, a greater than expected defeat would inflame internal tempers in the Conservative Party. The idea of having to face a new motion of no confidence in the parliamentary group, like those that defeated Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Liz Truss, could easily lead the prime minister to the decision to call the polls in advance.
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