Suella Braverman has admitted that the government does not know how much its new small boats bill will cost in a fiery Commons clash.
The home secretary has vocally backed the Illegal Migration Bill, claiming it will deter Channel crossings by allowing the government to detain and deport everyone who arrives in the UK in small boats without considering asylum and modern slavery claims.
But practical questions over a lack of detention capacity and deportation agreements continue to mount, and a required document assessing the cost of the law has not been published. She also admitted the bill’s “success is contingent on many unknown factors”.
The home secretary was grilled on the situation when she appeared before parliament’s Home Affairs Committee on Wednesday, following the arrival of almost 1,200 small boat migrants in two days.
In an intense clash with chair Dame Diana Johnson, Ms Braverman claimed “doing nothing is not an option” but was told to “just answer the question”.
“It's 100 days since that bill was introduced in the Commons, it’s gone through all Commons stages and it’s now in the Lords,” Dame Diana asked. “Why have we still not got any economic impact assessment?
“The bill will have finished all its stages and been given royal assent by the time we get this.”
Ms Braverman said the government would publish the document “in due course”, but when pressed, she admitted: “There are many unknown factors on which the bill’s success is contingent, for example the delivery of our Rwanda agreement. We’re currently in litigation and those timelines are out of our control.”
The home secretary said flights would only take off if the government wins the ongoing legal battle, which is currently at the Court of Appeal.
The Independent previously revealed that she had failed to disclose her previous work training Rwandan government lawyers to the Home Office, after working for six years as the director of a charity with close links to the Kigali government.
Ms Braverman admitted that the government does not yet have a “clear view of the operability” of the Rwanda deal, and will not be able to confirm the economic impact of the bill until it does.
She told the Home Affairs Committee that the cost of detaining all small boat migrants for 28 days, under the bill, was also “an unknown” because of fluctuating crossing numbers.
“When the bill comes into force, we will be able to take a view on how and how quickly we will be able to operationalise our detention and relocation powers, and that will inform the costs,” Ms Braverman added.
The home secretary was repeatedly asked whether she would correct the record in parliament, after appearing to claim the overall backlog of asylum decisions had fallen in a period where it rocketed to a new record.
Ms Braverman dismissed the questions and told the committee: “Asking questions again and again is not the best use of your time, I humbly suggest to you.”
Dame Diana replied: “I would respectfully say to you, home secretary, that we decide what we wish to ask you, and how many times we need to ask to get an answer.”
The home secretary was also grilled on Rishi Sunak’s pledge to clear a pre-June 2022 backlog of asylum cases by the end of this year, with Conservative MP Tim Loughton suggesting it was “not realistic”.
He told the committee he had calculated that in order for the target to be met, asylum decisions would have to quadruple.
Ms Braverman said “I’m not as pessimistic as you are”, adding that the Home Office was recruiting more caseworkers, increasing productivity and expanding a fast-track questionnaire scheme.
Last month, The Independent revealed that the UK has room for just 3,000 people to be detained under the new bill, less than a tenth of those who came across the Channel on small boats last year.
The entire capacity cannot be dedicated to small boat migrants, because places are also required for people being deported at the end of prison sentences or for immigration offences.
By the end of last year, almost 1,200 people were already being held in immigration detention, and the new military bases and barges being turned into asylum accommodation cannot be used as detention facilities.
It is unlawful to detain people unless they are being removed in a “reasonable” period, meaning that the government will be forced to release small boat migrants without a concrete deportation plan.
During a House of Lords debate on the Illegal Migration Bill last week, a government minister said they could only be sent to countries where Britain has struck “an agreement to take them back”, adding: “That is not at present the case, except in relation to Rwanda, but it may in future be the case in relation to other countries.”
A report released by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights on Sunday found the bill was unlawful and could lead to asylum seekers taking “more dangerous routes” to the UK, benefit people smugglers and worsen trafficking.
It said the government had not provided any evidence backing its claim that the law would deter Channel crossings, and that “people fleeing persecution or conflict have no safe and legal way of getting here”.
