HOME Secretary Suella Braverman will get a new legal duty to remove all Channel boat migrants from the UK under a tough new crackdown.
The new power is in the government’s long-awaited Bill to tackle illegal immigration after more than 45,000 arrived on our shores last year.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman is working on a tough new law to tackle the Channel boat migrant crisis
Rishi Sunak has been working with a small team of ministers and officials on the fiercely-guarded proposals for months.
It was due to be launched on January 31, but has been delayed until the last week of February amid intense legal wrangling behind the scenes.
There are concerns at the top of government that Attorney General Victoria Prentice could be wobbly and scupper the plans.
The PM has vowed to “stop the small boats” as a priority.
His new Bill will create a new duty on the Home Secretary to “remove as soon as practicable any person who comes to the UK illegally who has not come directly from a country where their life is threatened”.
This will cover all arrivals in small boats from France.
The PM will also seek to stop these people claiming asylum through a new “detain and deport” model which would see them held in centres and flown to another country within days.
But the key issue being discussed is how to make it “legally watertight” so the tough measures are not overturned in the courts.
Rishi is considering inserting “notwithstanding clauses” into the Bill which would make it clear UK courts can ignore interim rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.
It was one of these interim rulings that blocked the Rwanda deportation flight.
Mr Sunak wants to deport illegal immigrants within days.
This would help to stop the endless cycle of asylum claims and appeals based on the fact the person had been living in Britain for some time.
The Home Office is also considering stripping Channel boat migrants of their right to appeal their automatic exclusion from the asylum system.
Another option being looked at is changing the law so a Channel migrant can only lodge an appeal once they have been deported.
Government sources said Rishi and Suella both agree the crackdown must be ultra tough, but there are fears the Attorney General could go soft.
A source said: “Victoria Prentice could end up being the biggest problem.”
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel said Brits are “fed up with our asylum system being abused”.
Writing in today’s Sun on Sunday, she warned Mr Sunak that failure to sort out Britain’s borders would be “catastrophic for the party when the nation next heads to the polls”
She demanded Mr Sunak hurry up and enact the Nationality and Borders Bill she steered through Parliament which she said will help end bogus asylum claims.
Another senior Tory MP said expectations for Rishi’s new crackdown are sky-high and he must deliver.
They said: “You can’t keep telling people Santa is coming but the bells never ring.”
