Former Cabinet minister Lord Ken Clarke has claimed Britain is “moving towards an elected dictatorship” as he launched a caustic attack on Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill.
Lord Clarke – who served as both Secretary and Chancellor in the Government of former Tory Prime Minister Sir John Major – is now a crossbench peer and a strident critic of Brexit.
Speaking during a debate on the controversial legislation, which would involve flying failed asylum seekers to the East African country, and which is making its way through the House of Lords, Lord Clarke said: ”As time goes by in my career, I always fear echoes of the warnings that Quintin Hailsham used to give us all about the risks of moving towards an elected dictatorship in this country.
“The sovereignty of Parliament has its limits, which are the limits of the rule of law, the separation of powers and what ought to be the constitutional limits on any branch of government in a liberal democratic society such as ours.”
Addressing what he saw as problems with the new law, Lord Clarke said: “The way this should be resolved is for the Government to say that the facts have changed.
“We are not hearing or testing arguments. I am meant to cast a vote as to whether Rwanda is safe, and I have received an email, the text of the Government’s treaty and the Explanatory Notes.”
Referring to a previous speaker, he continued: “I do not have the expertise on Rwanda that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham has just demonstrated. I have never been there.
“I know that it has been a one-man dictatorship for more than 20 years, that we sometimes give refugee status here to people fleeing persecution in Rwanda and, indeed, that it has a rather dodgy record—not as bad as some African countries—on human rights in various respects.”
Referring to the decision by the Supreme Court that the proposals as they stand represent a breach of international law, he added: “I am not surprised by the judgment.”
Lord Clarke was not the only senior figure to criticise the legislation yesterday.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, leader of the Church of England said Britain would be undermining its standing in the world if it enacts the plan to send some asylum-seekers on what he called a one-way trip to Rwanda.
UK politicians were seeking to “outsource our moral and legal responsibility for asylum seekers and refugees”, he claimed.
Speaking as a member of Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, Archbishop Welby said that “a pick-and-choose approach to international law undermines our global standing.”
He added: “We can, as a nation, do better than this bill.”
