Government Have Lost Control Of Rwanda Policy
Government Have Lost Control Of Rwanda Policy
Immigration is now the number two issue for Conservative and Leave voters.
Credibility matters. The Brexiteer Bulletin would suggest that the government’s lack of effective action in tackling illegal migration could cost it enough credibility to lose the next election.
First of all, a reality check for those living in the mainstream media bubble. YouGov’s issues tracker finds that the issue of immigration and asylum is now the number two issue for both Conservative voters and Leave voters. Voters who gave Boris Johnson’s party that big pro-Brexit majority now view this issue as more important than health, crime and education. They currently rank immigration behind only the economy when it comes to the most important issues facing the country.
Not that you would know that from establishment media coverage. But that is why the Brexiteer Bulletin now exists - to highlight facts too inconvenient for others.
It is absurd that the government haven’t cut legal net migration to the tens of thousands as both David Cameron and Theresa May pledged - and couldn’t deliver inside the EU with open borders. The Brexiteer Bulletin will cover that issue separately another day.
But when it comes to specific issue of illegal migration on small boats across from France, consider this: in 2018 just 297 people came across via this route. By 2020 that grew to 8,417 people. In 2021 it was more than 28,000. And that number is almost certain to be widely surpassed this year.
The situation has become more and more serious for years, but the response has been pitiful. Handing the French tens of millions of pounds was a soft approach rewarded with ballooning numbers making the journey across. A total waste of money and time.
My suggestion in dealing with the French would have been to revoke a French fishing licence every time their authorities failed to stop a crossing. Taking the boats back to France directly would have massively embarrassed Macron’s Government, caused them to go bonkers - and given Macron & Co a much needed kick up the backside to stop the crisis.
Instead the French took the cash and the situation deteriorated further as public alarm grew.
On 9th September 2021 the idea of finally turning the boats back was talked about, including this Daily Express front page.
It simply never happened. Not a single boat was ever turned back to my knowledge.
That despite huge public support for the policy. 57% of all Brits were in favour of the move including 88% of Conservative voters.
We then of course had the Rwanda plan, announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel way back in April. Intended as a clear deterrent for those coming across on small boats illegally, it was announced that the first flight would take off on 14th June.
It didn’t. Instead complete humiliation as the ECHR got involved. Rather than ignoring them, the British government backed down.
Subsequently we saw Priti Patel criticise the ECHR block. But clearly the government should have left the ECHR a while back instead of moaning now. As Home Secretary in 2016, Theresa May had called for the UK to leave the European Convention.
Since the recent outrageous intervention we have seen Suella Braverman advocate exiting the ECHR as part of her leadership campaign, making a powerful case given her experience as Attorney General.
But as it stands the situation grows more desperate. Boats continue to come (another 174 people on four yesterday alone) but there is seemingly no chance of the first Rwanda flight taking off until September at the earliest. Few things destroy trust in government more than announcing a policy and then subsequently failing to implement it.
The complete failure to stop this dangerous and increasingly out of control crisis may not be regarded as a top political issue for some in Westminster. But as the Brexiteer Bulletin has already highlighted, it really matters to Conservatives and Brexiteers who want to see strong border controls.
If the next Prime Minister refuses to leave the ECHR and the boats keep coming, voters will determine that the government has not completed Brexit nor fully taken back control.
This deplorable situation has exasperated my perception on our having any authority in government at all, as Westminster runs ring’s around its own ministerial endeavouring.
Our Home Secretary, it would appear, has had absolutely no influence whatsoever and given her numerous failures to communicate this imposition in a more forthright manner, with, to use her own words, “valued partnership agencies” her Rwanda project was also anticipated to fail irrespective of the inducement’s conceded.
Without the full cooperation of both France and the wider European community to discourage this transportation of predominantly undocumented individuals, whose refuge after all within these respective countries, was already secured, our government will remain ineffective.
What precisely are our commitments to our having a Trade and Cooperation Agreement that appears to be so one sided? Remember, oversight for the full implementation of the withdrawal agreement passed over any legislative body at Stormont and lay’s solely on the shoulders of the European Union who now control the entirety of the island’s coastal waters. Some claim then, on northern Ireland’s remaining British?
Brexit’s Carpe Diem moment I fear has been irreplaceably sabotaged, hence Lord Frost’s and Indeed Liz Truss’s abysmal performance to renegotiate an internationally binding resolution to a Done deal that quite possibly could very well spell the end of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Treacherous behaviour