Rishi Sunak seems serious about stopping the Channel boats

So long as the extensive pre-briefing of the Illegal Migration Bill turns out to be a reasonably accurate reflection of its contents, things are looking up for those of us who rank ‘stopping the boats’ as one of our top political priorities.

Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman are finally about to launch a piece of legislation that appears sufficiently broad ranging and radical to have a major impact if it can be steered onto the statue book without being emasculated by parliamentary rebellions in the Commons and especially the House of Lords.

There will be other obstacles it will have to surmount even as statute law in order to achieve its aim – principally legal challenges alleging non-compliance with the existing human rights framework – but at least it amounts to a serviceable plan to destroy the incentive for anyone to pay a people trafficker for a place in a dinghy across the English Channel.