James Cleverly vows to resurrect Rwanda scheme as he launches Tory leadership bid
James Cleverly will make sending illegal migrants to Rwanda a key policy if he replaces Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.
James Cleverly has vowed to resurrect the Rwanda plan while formally launching his bid to succeed Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party.
The shadow home secretary told supporters and activists that migration will not be brought down without a “deterrent”.
“When we deal with illegal migration, I stand by what I have always said, we need to have a deterrent,” he said at the Old War Office in central London.
“And as leader, as prime minister, I will use my contacts and my reputation with Rwanda to resurrect that incredibly important partnership.”
Mr Cleverly declined to pledge to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The ECHR is the court that halted a deportation flight to Rwanda in June 2022.
He said: “The simple fact is that if we are trying to grab shorthand answers quick fixes, the British people will look at us and say, ‘We’ve heard that before’.
“We need to be honest and open. We need to show where things are difficult and how they can be achieved. And I had a plan. I had a plan, which is why those small number of voluntary asylum seekers went to Rwanda, because the Supreme Court’s argument was that Rwanda was inherently dangerous for asylum seekers, and I was building an evidence base with asylum seekers in Rwanda to prove that was not the case.
“That’s how we would have defeated the UK Supreme Court.
“That’s how we would have got the flights off, not by quick fixes or sound bites, by graft and delivery and focus, which is what we have to do to gain credibility getting back into government.”
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Mr Cleverly also said he wants to return to the “Thatcherite era” of pro-business policies.
Speaking in London, he said: “I’m struck by the difference between that pro-business environment that Margaret Thatcher created and the massively anti-business environment under Gordon Brown and Labour,” the shadow home secretary said.
“And I want to go back to that Thatcherite era where entrepreneurs are rewarded, wealth creators are a key part of our society, and we get back into the habit of being on the front foot rather than the back foot.”
