Ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick said Rishi Sunak is choosing to bring back the Rwanda asylum plan in a way that probably won’t succeed.
In his first talk since leaving his job, Mr. Jenrick told the media that the proposed law was not strong and would face a lot of legal challenges.
However, he mentioned that the Prime Minister had decided to go ahead and introduce it.
He said he won’t vote for the bill on Tuesday.
The government has made a new law to restart its plan to send people looking for asylum in the UK to East Africa, because the old plan was said to be against the law by the Supreme Court last month.
The law wants to say that Rwanda is a safe place for refugees in the UK. This means flights won’t be stopped because of legal issues.
But, when talking to BBC One’s Sunday program with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr. Jenrick said the law as it is now would still allow many different legal complaints that will slow down our plan.
“I believe they decided to propose a bill that won’t work,” he said.
He said that the plan for Rwanda might lead to a few symbolic flights, but it wouldn’t stop enough people from coming to the UK in small boats to seek asylum.
The plan to bring back the program has caused different beliefs among Conservative lawmakers. Sunak needs their support to make sure the plan moves forward in Parliament next week.
Last week, the prime minister said in a news conference that the new immigration law is very strict. People arriving in small boats can only challenge it in court if they have strong proof that they are in serious danger.
Some liberal Tories think it goes too far in trying to go around the courts and could make the UK break its promises to refugees.
Some people in the party’s right side think the plan isn’t good enough and will still face problems with the law.
Mr Jenrick said that he and other Conservative MPs want to convince government ministers to make the new law in a better way. He also said he wants the law to be effective and to stop people from doing bad things.
On the same show, Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove said the government’s law is strong and legal.
He also said that there would be very few legal challenges.