London: Britain’s Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has resigned from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, expressing “deep disagreement” with the government’s Rwandan policy of deporting illegal immigrants. Jenrick was until recently seen as an ally of Sunak. Jenrick said he felt the emergency bill presented in a parliamentary statement by the Prime Minister, Home Secretary James Cleverley, “does not go far enough to end the legal challenges”. Sunak said of her resignation that he was “disappointed”, but that his reasoning for stepping down was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation”.
“It is with great regret that I have tendered my resignation as Immigration Minister to the Prime Minister,” Jenrick said in a post on X. He said, when I have such deep disagreement with the government’s policy, I cannot continue in my post. Jenrick said small boats crossing the English Channel were causing “unintentional harm” to the country and the government needed to “put national interests above highly contested statements of international law.” “I have consistently advocated for a clear rule of law that severely limits the opportunities for domestic and foreign courts to block or undermine the effectiveness of the policy,” he wrote in his resignation letter to Sunak on Wednesday.
In his response, Prime Minister Sunak said that the new bill would be “the toughest illegal migration legislation ever introduced by the UK government.” “The Government of Rwanda has made it clear that it will not accept this UK plan based on legislation that could be considered a breach of international law obligations,” he said. The agreement ensures that people deported to Rwanda will not be at risk of being transferred to a country where their life or freedom is at risk.
