The Rwanda Bill is going to be hugely contentious

On Wednesday, the government finally published its promised ‘emergency legislation’, after the Supreme Court ruled in November that the Rwanda scheme was unlawful. The new legislation follows the agreement of a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday which aimed to ‘strengthen the UK-Rwanda Migration Partnership’ and deal with the serious problems identified by the Supreme Court.

Rishi Sunak has made the small boat crossings into a totemic issue but it has now rather spun out of control. Some might argue that the main ‘emergency’ the legislation is really designed to address is a crisis in the Conservative party over the issue of migration. The new legislation may not have been strong enough for former immigration minister Robert Jenrick. But his resignation yesterday should not disguise the fact that this Bill will prove to be hugely contentious and legally problematic.

Rather than leaving the courts to determine whether the new Rwanda treaty resolves the concerns the Supreme Court had about Rwanda being a safe country, the new Bill introduces what are frequently referred to by lawyers as ‘ouster clauses’.