Suella Braverman has said there is not “any chance” of asylum seekers being deported to Rwanda before the election under Rishi Sunak’s plan.
In her latest attack on the prime minister, the former home secretary said the only solution was to opt-out of human rights laws.
On Wednesday the Supreme Court ruled the government’s plan to send asylum seekers arriving in the UK having crossed the channel to Rwanda was unlawful.
It said this was because there was a real risk they would be sent back to the country from which they originally fled persecution.
Sunak is poised to introduce “emergency legislation” which will seek to declare Rwanda a safe country in an attempt to overcome the court’s concerns.
A new legally binding treaty is also due to be unveiled, which will see Rwanda promise no to send people back to their home countries.
But in an article for The Daily Telegraph, Braverman said this would not work and would still lead to legal challenges.
“There is no longer any chance of stopping the boats within the current legal framework,” she said. “Tinkering with a failed plan will not stop the boats.”
She said: “Legislation must therefore circumvent the lengthy process of further domestic litigation, to ensure that flights can take off as soon as the new Bill becomes law.
“To do this, the Bill must exclude all avenues of legal challenge. The entirety of the Human Rights Act and European Convention on Human Rights, and other relevant international obligations, or legislation, including the Refugee Convention, must be disapplied.”
Sunak is already under intense pressure from other right-wing Tory MPs to pull the UK out of the ECHR and other international agreements.
But other Conservatives have dismissed the idea of the UK trying to abandon its commitment to human rights laws.
Damian Green, the former de facto deputy prime minister, said Braverman’s plan was “the most unconservative statement I have ever heard from a Conservative politician”.
“Giving the state the explicit power to override every legal constraint is what Putin and Xi do. We absolutely cannot go there,” he said.
The emergency legislation is also likely to face stiff opposition in the House of Lords, which could delay its passage.
Sunak has said his plan will mean deportation flights will take off for Rwanda by the Spring. But Chancellor Jeremy Hunt yesterday said there is “no guarantee” this would happen.