The Government is “highly confident” that the next deportation flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda will go ahead, a Cabinet minister has said after an 11th-hour legal ruling halted the first departure.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said ministers were “surprised and disappointed” by the ruling late on Tuesday by a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
However she said work is already under way at the Home Office to prepare for the next flight to the east African nation to take place.
The ruling by the Strasbourg-based court was greeted with fury by Tory MPs, with fresh demands for the UK to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Backbencher Andrea Jenkyns tweeted: “Yes let’s withdraw from European Court of Human Rights and stop their meddling in British law.”
Greg Smith called on the Government to bring forward its promised UK Bill of Rights and “remove all power of the European Court of Human Rights over our sovereign decisions”.
Ms Coffey said she was “not aware of any decisions or even hints” within Government about the UK withdrawing from the convention.
“The Government is disappointed by the decision. I have never known such a quick decision made by somebody at the ECHR. I think the public will be surprised at European judges overruling British judges,” she told Sky News.
“Nevertheless I know the Home Office is already getting ready for the next flight and we will to continue to prepare and try and overturn any future legal challenges as well.”
Asked how confident she is that the next flight will be able to go ahead, she said: “I am highly confident.”
For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers have only themselves to blame for what happened.
“They have pushed ahead with a policy they knew was unworkable, unethical, and incredibly expensive because they just wanted a row and someone else to blame,” she said.
“This Government has abandoned all British decency and common sense.”
Earlier, the ECHR said it had granted an urgent interim measure in regards to an Iraqi national who was due to be on the flight, and it is understood the court was considering a number of further requests.
It said the individual concerned should not be removed until ongoing judicial review proceedings in the British courts challenging the legality of the deportation policy have been completed.
Home Secretary Priti Patel will make a Commons statement of the situation following Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
In a statement following the ruling on Tuesday, she described the ECHR’s intervention as “very surprising”, adding that “many of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next”.
She said the Home Office legal team is reviewing “every decision made on this flight”, and that preparation for the next flight “begins now”.
“I have always said this policy will not be easy to deliver and am disappointed that legal challenge and last-minute claims have meant today’s flight was unable to depart.
“It is very surprising that the European Court of Human Rights has intervened despite repeated earlier success in our domestic courts.
“These repeated legal barriers are similar to those we experience with other removals flights and many of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next.
“We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering our plans to control our nation’s borders.
“Our legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now.”
Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said: “We are not deterred by these developments.
“Rwanda remains fully committed to making this partnership work. The current situation of people making dangerous journeys cannot continue as it is causing untold suffering to so many.
“Rwanda stands ready to receive the migrants when they do arrive and offer them safety and opportunity in our country.”
However the ruling was welcomed by James Wilson, deputy director of Detention Action, which is one of the groups that has been challenging the deportation policy through the courts.
“Last night was a night for the history books and the European Court of Human Rights, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has done what it was established to do,” he said.
“It rarely intervenes in the legal matters of member countries. That it has done so now shows how potentially dangerous the Government’s Rwanda removals policy is.”
