Amid the parliamentary theatrics surrounding the Rwanda safety bill in recent days, it has been easy to lose sight of the absurdity at its core. The Commons cannot make another country safe by declaring it so in law. The Westminster drama – backbench rebellions, frontbench resignations, frantic whipping operations – has been premised on an effort to assert something that the supreme court has already judged to be false.
That ruling should have been fatal to the government’s policy for dealing with unauthorised cross-Channel migration by deporting asylum claimants to Kigali. But Rishi Sunak was too committed to the plan, and too lacking in authority within his own party, to change course.
