A big problem hit the government’s small boat agenda today: the Court of Appeal ruled plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda unlawful, overturning a judgment in December that the programme could go ahead. Today, “deficiencies” in the Rwandan asylum system, the judge said, suggests people sent to the East African nation could be returned to the countries they are fleeing from.
What now? Perhaps a familiar full-throated battle cry that government efforts to constrain illegal immigration are being blocked by “lefty lawyers”? Perhaps the Tory Party now runs in the general election on a platform to leave the European Court of Human Rights? But definitely question marks over Sunak’s “stop the boats” pledge.