Is there anything the Tories won’t do for the Rwanda bill?

Ah, the Rwanda bill. Perhaps the grossest policy to come out of the cold, barely-beating heart of our current Tory government.

Essentially, it seeks for UK law to recognize Rwanda as a safe country to which asylum seekers may be deported. The original bill directly opposed a Supreme Court ruling last November, which found Rwanda to be an unsafe destination. Now, a recent parliamentary report has declared the new Rwanda legislation, tailored in response to this ruling, to be in breach of international regulations and Britain’s human rights laws.  

An escalation in the conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has contributed to this. The M23 rebel militant group is a Rwanda-backed group of ethnic Tutsis that broke away from the Congolese army just over 10 years ago. They are saying they are facing a threat from a Congolese rebel group made up of ethnic Hutus who committed the Rwandan genocide. 

Rwanda’s backing of the M23 militia group’s conflict with the Democratic Republic of the Congo has great implications for the UK’s plans to deport asylum seekers to the region. In line with its immigration strategy, the UK has been painfully vague in condemning Rwanda’s backing of M23 and remains wholly complicit in the ongoing atrocities within DRC. 

Of course, where the rest of us see human rights offences, Rishi Sunak sees opportunity. With the new legislation moving swiftly through parliament, Sunak has gone on to state during PMQ’s that he is “prepared to revisit our domestic legal frameworks” to get the Rwanda bill moving again.

Is the government seriously considering trading in human rights to fulfil their own political agenda? Personally, I do not know if that is a question I want answered. I’m still trying to figure out when we moved into an age where human rights were seen as a concept to be abandoned as a mere matter of inconvenience. The UK politicizing human rights is a dangerous example to be setting as one of the world’s foremost powers. That’s not really ‘Levelling Up’, is it, Sunak?

The fire has been stoked even further by Sunak’s bizarre and vulgar live interview with Piers Morgan, whereby he bet £1,000 on his ability to deport at least one asylum seeker to Rwanda ahead of the next general election.  

The bar has been set record-breakingly low, time and time again, throughout the past 14 years of Tory rule, however Sunak’s gambling with immigrant lives could perhaps see it crashing through the floor. It would be almost laughable if it weren’t so disgusting.  

While the Supreme Court’s finding of the bills’ illegality restores some glimmer of hope in our political system, the ultimate decision remains with Parliament and not the judiciary. This leaves the bill with an uncomfortable degree of legitimacy, and the Tories with a great degree of freedom to pursue the bill with a small wave of an authoritarian wand.   

The Tories’ complete failure to enact their immigration plan has made the future of UK politics unclear. However, one thing is certain: young people could not feel more disillusioned with the Tory party. A recent YouGov poll showed only 1% of 18-24-year-olds intend to vote for the Conservatives in the next general election.

And it’s no wonder, considering this government’s incessant pursuit of out-of-touch immigration policies. Having banged on about little else over the last 13 years than taking back control of our borders, the Tories have repeatedly rallied behind populist dog-whistlers such as Tory MP Lee Anderson – the man of course famous for his heartfelt message to asylum seekers: “f*ck off back to France”. In doing so, they have washed their hands of the responsibility to effectively tackle any significant issues facing young people today such as inflation, housing, and the climate crisis.

I have stood by and watched, teary-eyed, as rent prices have skyrocketed, and my weekly food shop has nearly doubled in price since I began university in 2021. Like many others, I am feeling a great financial squeeze on the back of the cost-of-living crisis which has impacted my ability to heat my house and socialize. Yet despite these issues that plague us, the Tories have relentlessly neglected them in pursuit of their immigration goals. I expect this to only get worse if the Tories win yet another election.

Rivals within the Tory party have already started positioning themselves for a leadership election that could accompany election defeat. There are worries that a colossal election loss may remove many of the moderate Tory voices, leaving only the right of the party in a position to rebuild.

The renovation of the Conservative Party from a handful of populist-right voices could spell the end of moderate Conservatism for a while, as we see a spike in hard-right populist libertarianism. We have already begun to see this splintering with the emergence of factions such as the hilariously named, Popular Conservatives (backed by Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg: two of the least popular names in British politics), and the Braverman club. 

As much as we may wish it to be, we don’t have a crystal ball, and the fate of the Tory Party still hangs in the balance. Only time will tell.