Britain’s Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has resigned from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet over “strong disagreements” with the government’s Rwanda policy of deporting illegal migrants. Sunak responded to his resignation by saying he was “disappointed” but that his reasoning to quit the post was "based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation".
It is with great sadness that I have written to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as Minister for Immigration,” Jenrick said in a post on X after questions in the House of Commons where he was missing from the front bench."I cannot continue in my position when I have such strong disagreements with the direction of the government's policy on immigration," he said. In his reply, Sunak countered by saying that the new bill would be "the toughest piece of illegal migration legislation ever put forward by a UK government"."If we were to oust the courts entirely, we would collapse the entire scheme. The Rwandan government has been clear that it would not accept the UK basing this scheme on legislation that could be considered in breach of our international law obligations,” he said."There would be no point in passing a law that would leave us with nowhere to send people to," Sunak added.The move marks a big upset for Sunak at a time when he is fine tuning his general election pitch for 2024. The Safety of Rwanda Bill is to be formally tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday. The Home Office claims it will conclusively deem Rwanda a safe country notwithstanding UK and international law.