The government is planning to fight any challenges from the European Court of Human Rights which would attempt to block the Prime Minister’s new immigration bill banning small boats crossing the Channel.
Ministers are putting together a delaying strategy to appeal any ruling the court could make against the UK and to implement the policy anyway during any legal processes.
This could help the government avoid having the leave the ECHR in its entirety.
Reportedly, government ministers believe that even if a final ruling is made against the UK for implementing the legislation, it is unlikely they will be required to implement the judgement immediately, and could ignore it for several years.
This is because figures have suggested that around 40 per cent of leading judgements which are concerned with EU states made in the past decade had not had action taken yet, Whitehall sources told the Times.
The government are planning to fight any challenges from the European Court of Human Rights which would attempt to block the Prime Minister’s (pictured at PMQs yesterday) new immigration bill banning small boats crossing the Channel
A group being brought ashore in Dover after crossing the Channel earlier this week
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said the the government ‘very strongly view our proposals as lawful,’ when talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
And PM Rishi Sunak has said he is ‘up for the fight’ with the ECHR in Strasbourg.
Ms Braverman did however admit to MPs that there is a ‘more (than) 50 per cent chance’ the legislation may not be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The new legislation gives ministers the power to ignore any rulings made against the government’s plans to detain and deport all migrants who arrive in the UK on small boats. Therefore, even if a case was lodged with the ECHR the government could still go forward with the plan as the case is heard – which can take three years.
A government source told the Times that they do not want to ‘trigger a full-on confrontation with the court’ but instead ‘the plan is to implement the policy while that process takes place.’
Announcing the plans in the Commons on Tuesday, Ms Braverman said asylum seekers arriving illegally will be detained without bail or judicial review for 28 days before being ‘swiftly removed’ to their home country or a ‘safe third country’ such as Rwanda.
They face a lifetime ban on returning once deported and will never be allowed to settle in the country or gain citizenship.
The Bill’s feasibility has been questioned as plans such as forcibly removing asylum seekers to Rwanda are mired in legal challenges.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman (pictured) has said the the government ‘very strongly view our proposals as lawful,’ when talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a hike in funding from the UK to stop Channel crossings
It comes ahead of an Anglo-French summit in Paris tomorrow between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Mr Macron, where Channel migrants will be top of the agenda.
It is the first bilateral summit between France and Britain for five years and both sides are looking to repair relations after bruising rows about Channel migrants, post-Brexit trading agreements and the Aukus submarine deal with Australia.
And French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a hike in funding from the UK to stop Channel crossings.
London and Paris are in talks about a longer-term multi-million-pound deal to boost French beach patrols, surveillance and officers to smash trafficking gangs.
Elysee Palace sources say both sides are trying to strike a ‘multi-annual financing framework’ that would put cooperation on a stable footing and allow to ‘better plan our actions’.
