Government will 'get cracking straight away' with Rwanda migrant flights after ... trends now
The government is ready to 'get cracking straight away' with sending Channel migrants to Rwanda as soon as it wins the legal battle over the plan, a senior minister said today.
Oliver Dowden insisted the plan to send thousands of boat arrivals to Africa was legal and would be cleared by the Court of Appeal.
He spoke out after Home Secretary Suella Braverman suggested that the first flights to Kigali could take off in the summer if the court upholds the Rwanda programme's legality in the coming weeks.
Hearings are due to take place in April with a ruling due to follow shortly afterwards.
Mr Dowden, the Cabinet Office Minister, told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: 'The reason why we haven't been able to proceed with Rwanda is because it's currently before the courts. We actually succeeded at the High Court stage, it's before the Court of Appeal.
'But as soon as that process is through - and I'm confident our policy is lawful - we will get cracking straight away with the Rwanda policy and use that as a tool in our armoury.'
Asked about the prospect of children being covered by the new immigration regime, Mr Dowden said: 'I don't relish any of this and I really wish we didn't have to do it, and the Government isn't running to do this. The Government is doing this because this is a major problem.'
Oliver Dowden insisted the plan to send thousands of boat arrivals to Africa was legal and would be cleared by the Court of Appeal.
The Home Secretary pledged to act quickly to remove migrants who arrive in Britain illegally if the Court of Appeal upholds the Rwanda programme's legality in the coming weeks
Touring new accommodation being built for migrants outside the Rwandan capital Kigali, Ms Braverman said yesterday: 'There is every possibility that we can move quickly if we get a good line of judgment in our favour.'
Her defiant stance comes in the wake of the row over Gary Lineker likening the Government's language over the small boats crisis in the Channel to that of 1930s Germany.
Yesterday the Match Of The Day presenter returned to BBC screens after winning a power battle with the Corporation.
Touring new accommodation being built for migrants outside the Rwandan capital Kigali, Ms Braverman said yesterday: 'There is every possibility that we can move quickly if we get a good line of judgment in our favour.'
It raises the prospect of removals flights beginning by the summer – even if the Home Office is facing another appeal in the Supreme Court. Officials had previously indicated that all domestic legal appeals would have to be concluded before flights could take off.
The scheme, which was announced last April, is regarded within No 10 as key to shoring up the Tories' 'Red Wall' seats, previously held by Labour, at the next Election.
It allows migrants to be handed a one-way ticket to the East African nation and has been supplemented with the Illegal Migration Bill, published earlier this month, which circumvents human rights provisions giving the migrants the right to claim asylum.
The original terms of the deal covered only those who claimed asylum. But under a new agreement signed by Ms Braverman yesterday, anyone who arrives illegally in the UK will face removal to Rwanda whether they claim asylum or not.
Migrants who
