The supreme court has sunk the prime minister’s flagship policy and he is squandering a valuable opportunity to change course
It is not too late for the government to align UK immigration policy with the principles of international law. It is probably too late for Rishi Sunak to derive any political benefit from a change of direction now that the supreme court has rendered his existing scheme inoperable. He must still make that change in defiance of demands from Conservative MPs to push on faster down the wrong path.
The court’s ruling is unambiguous on the point of law that prevents implementation of the government’s proposed scheme for processing asylum claims in Rwanda. Refugees deported by that mechanism would not have sufficient guarantee against being returned to the places from which they had fled in fear of persecution, torture or death. That protection – the principle of non-refoulement – is a foundational tenet of human rights law and the refugee conventions to which the UK is bound.