The Rwanda treaty has established two new norms in politics. First, the Supreme Court acts as a revising chamber with the power to change government legislation. Secondly, Labour is terrified of Rwanda.
At PMQs, Sir Keir thought he was on a winning ticket and all he had to do was mock the relocation scheme and score an easy victory. He began with a joke: three Tory home secretaries have been sent to Rwanda but not one refugee.
Rishi ignored that and updated the house on Labour’s policy which is to ‘scrap the scheme if and when it is operational,’ he said. He concluded that Sir Keir ‘finds himself on the side of the people smugglers.’
Labour doesn’t realise how bad this will sound on the doorstep. Their leader supports foreign gangs whose illegal trade is making the housing market unaffordable.
He seems to imagine that elections are won on quibbles about loopholes and inconsistencies
Sir Keir did his genius-lawyer bit and gave the chamber a master-class in sifting through the small print of a brief. For him, every voter has a nit-picking legalistic brain. And he seems to imagine that elections are won on quibbles about loopholes and inconsistencies. He said the numbers of migrants earmarked for Rwanda had declined steeply, ‘from tens of thousands, to just hundreds.’ He added that ‘the Court of Appeal made it clear there’s housing for only 100’. And he compared this low tally with the total number sent to Rwanda so far: ‘It remains stubbornly consistent: zero.’
His backbenchers were chortling merrily at all this. Game set and match.
Sir Keir moved to ‘Article Nineteen’ of the treaty whose provisions he seems to have memorised overnight. This obliges us to accept Rwandan refugees who want to relocate to the UK. ‘How many from Rwanda are coming here?’ he wanted to know.
Rishi turned this to his advantage
‘It’s a point of pride that we are a compassionate country that welcomes people from around the world.’
Sir Keir mentioned Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda. who took office during Tony Blair’s first term in power. Rwanda was corrupt, Sir Keir implied. And he asked how much had been ‘showered’ on the president in addition to the initial bung of £140 million.
Rishi carefully replied that no ‘incremental’ payments had been made. Sir Keir was expecting this evasive reply and his script-writers had prepared a gag about Tory policy. It has developed, said Sir Keir, ‘from “up yours Delors” to “take our money Kagame”.’
No one heard that. Sir Keir had already lost the house as soon as he started his legal disquisition. Rishi stuck to the big picture. He wants to stop the boats. Labour wants to stop the planes.
Legal niceties make no difference to hungry migrants shivering under tarpaulins in the dunes of Calais. People-trafficking is a confidence business. If the traveller doesn’t trust the travel-courier, he’ll change his plans or scrap the journey altogether. The very first flight that reaches Rwanda from the UK will hobble the entire business. This is what scares Sir Keir. Not that the law is too complex but that its impact will be devastatingly simple. No sane migrant will invest thousands of euros on a journey that may land him in equatorial Africa.
The SNP’s Stephen Flynn echoed Sir Keir’s preening rectitude. He spoke poetically about the ‘enrichment’ offered by migrants to our schools and to our health care system. (And he omitted the housing sector which is unlikely to be ‘enriched’ by crowds of homeless, jobless, penniless newcomers.) He praised Britain’s glorious heritage as a haven for refugees but he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘Britain’ or even ‘this country.’ All he could manage was: ‘What has become of this place?’
Clearly he loves the UK and its open-hearted, pluralist culture. Perhaps next week he’ll say it out loud. Perhaps.
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