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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 22, 2024.
Sunak says the UK is ready to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda
On Monday, Britain's parliament voted to put asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the UK would be ready to begin deporting asylum-seekers to Rwanda within the next few months.
Sunak has vowed to put a stop to the some 30,000 refugees who entered the UK by crossing the English Channel last year. The idea to send migrants to Rwanda was first introduced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022. Under the plan, regardless of a refugee’s country of origin, they will be shipped to Rwanda and forced to submit their asylum applications there instead of in the UK.
The legislation is a response to a UK Supreme Court ruling that deemed such deportations a violation of international law because of Rwanda’s poor human rights record and because refugees would be at risk of being returned from Rwanda to their home countries, where they could face harm.
The plan is being criticized as a highly expensive gimmick for Sunak, who is facing significant political pressure as his party risks defeat in the upcoming general elections. The UK has already transferred $178 million to Rwanda although no refugees have been sent so far. He remains committed to the plan, asserting that preparations, including chartered jets and an airfield on standby, are complete for the flights expected to start in 10 to 12 weeks. However, UN rights experts have cautioned that airlines participating could face legal repercussions for complicity in violating international law.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during Prime Minister's Questions, at the House of Commons in London, Britain, January 17, 2024.
Hard Numbers: UK House of Commons passes Rwanda bill, Trump interrupts Carroll trial, Colombia warns American tourists, Internet crowns hottest Houthi
320: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunaksuccessfully pushed the Rwanda Bill through the lower house of Parliament on Wednesday. His signature immigration bill, which aims to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda as their claims are processed, had divided his party, resulting in a chaotic day of resignations and internal rebellion. But, against all odds, the 320 Tories united to pass the bill, which now heads to the House of Lords.
10 million: On Wednesday, the judge overseeing the defamation trial in which the writer E. Jean Carroll is suing Donald Trump for $10 million threatened to throw the former president out of the courtroom because he repeatedly made audible comments in court. During Carroll’s testimony about what happened after she accused him of raping her, Trump could be heard saying “witch hunt” and “it was a con job” loudly enough that jurors could hear.
8: In Colombia, the government is warning Americans to stay off dating apps while visiting the country after 8 tourists died in the last two months. The US embassy in Bogota said victims have been drugged and robbed after meeting people on dating apps. The announcement coincides with reports that the number of robberies of foreign visitors increased by 200% and deaths by 29% in the last three months of 2023.
13 million: A Yemeni militant turned influencer, dubbed online as “Timhouthi Chalamet” because of his resemblance to Hollywood heartthrob Timothée Chalamet, has gone viral on TikTok. In a video viewed 13 million times, he is seen sailing on the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship seized by Yemen’s militant Houthis last year and exemplary of how much of the conflict in the Red Sea is playing out online.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty at the Conservative Party's conference.
Sunak makes his big pitch
In his first major address to the British Conservative Party conference since becoming prime minister last fall, Rishi Sunak certainly ruffled some feathers.
The biggest announcement at the conference, held in Manchester, was Sunak’s decision to scrap the northern part of the HS2 railway project, Britain’s first extended high-speed rail network, planned to run through the country’s nucleus. Scrapping this leg of the route means severing the path between Birmingham and Manchester.
Sunak says the move will save billions of pounds amid a cost-of-living crunch that’ll be directed to other railway and bus services. But many critics – including Tory stalwarts like former PM David Cameron, who pioneered the project back in 2013 – are calling the decision a mistake.
Sunak allies say that the cost of the project, which the Cameron government earmarked at £37 billion a decade ago, is rising too much and cutting back could save important tax dollars.
But business leaders say Sunak’s flip-flopping will undermine investor confidence in government decision-making and that ditching a much-needed infrastructure overhaul will negatively impact economic growth.
Sunak pitched himself to the forum as a changemaker after years of failed leadership – Tories have ruled for 17 of the past 30 years – in a clear effort to mix things up. After years of political tumult, the Tories are now trailing the Labour Party by 16 percentage points in some national polls.
It’s clear that Brits have soured on the Conservative Party and that the Labour Party would win if elections, set to take place before Jan. 2025, were held tomorrow. Still, polls suggest a gap between disdain for the Tories and enthusiasm for the alternative. Next week, it’s Labour leader Keir Starmer’s turn to address his party’s conference in Liverpool and put forward a positive policy message. The pressure is on.
Grant Shapps leaves Downing Street after being appointed Defence Secretary in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's mini-reshuffle.
Meet the UK’s new defense secretary
After British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace resigned from his post this week, PM Rishi Sunak tapped Conservative MP Grant Shapps to take his place.
Shapps, who has served in several cabinet positions since 2019 – most recently overseeing the Department of Energy Security – was not on many people’s bingo cards to take over the defense portfolio due to a lack of foreign policy and national security experience.
Still, some analysts say that Sunak likely tapped Shapps, who backed him for the Tory leadership, because of his apt communication skills – skills the PM hopes can help the party connect with an electorate that’s soured on the Tories after years of political tumult.
Shapps traveled to Kyiv last week as part of a plan to help Ukraine power its nuclear plants.The UK has been one of the world's staunchest supporters of Ukraine to date.
The PM made a few other tweaks to the cabinet this week, but some critics say that he should have done more to shake things up within the party this summer as a general election looms, and Labour remains nearly 20 points ahead in the polls.
Boris Johnson remains a dangerous force in UK politics
Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics, this week from the Oslo airport.
Is the political career of Boris Johnson over?
Seems to be the case but you can never be entirely certain, in his particular case. I think he has the ambition to come back. And clearly, he's going to remain a dangerous, in my opinion, a very disruptive force inside the Conservative Party. If they lose the election next year, which is not unlikely, mildly speaking, there might be a civil war and Boris Johnson might be one of the leaders of that particular civil war inside the Conservative Party. But remains to be seen.
What's the legacy, political and otherwise, of Silvio Berlusconi?
Well, to be on the positive side, he created a media empire. He did some reforms of the Italian political system after the scandals that sort of ripped apart the old political system in the past, but apart from that and in spite of the fact that he is now, sort of, given a state funeral and everyone is parading for him, that happens in situations like this, I think his legacy is mostly negative on the populist, who in three terms of government did very, very little to address the fundamental problems of the Italian economy, in the Italian state. A populist man who maneuvered, a man who had self-interest at the center of most things. But I think history will not judge him too kind.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Is this the end of Boris Johnson?
Boris Johnson is out of British political life for the first time in more than 20 years after announcing on Friday that he’s giving up his parliamentary seat and resigning from the House of Commons effective immediately.
Johnson took this preemptive step after seeing the results of Parliament’s privilege committee investigation that accused him of lying to parliament over the “partygate” scandal. The committee comprised of four Conservative and three Labour MPs was reportedly set to recommend that the former PM be banned from the chamber for 20 days – though the report has not yet been made public.
This recommendation would have led to a by-election if 10% of voters in Johnson’s constituency backed the move. Given Johnson’s deep unpopularity, this was all but a sure thing, and he quit in a huff – decrying the “witch hunt” on his way out – rather than risk being shown the door.
It’s a startling fall from grace for a man who, in 2019, inherited the biggest parliamentary majority since the 1970s, only to squander it by breaking his own COVID lockdown rules and lying about it repeatedly. Still, Johnson has left open the possibility of another political run, though he would have to find a new seat to run in. (His current seat will almost certainly flip to Labour.)
What does this mean for the Conservative Party? PM Rishi Sunak, a Johnson rival, said that he backs the parliamentary committee’s work. But even though Sunak will undoubtedly be glad to see the back of Johnson’s shaggy head, this drama – Johnson called the committee a “kangaroo court” – is a distraction the PM doesn’t want, particularly after he’s spent the past year trying to convince voters that the days of petty Tory Party infighting are over.
What’s more, two other Tory MPs and Johnson allies also resigned Friday over a separate matter, meaning that the Conservative Party will now face three tough by-elections next month.
This development, however, is unlikely to have a significant impact on broader politics considering that the Labour Party is pummeling the Tories in the polls and is expected to maintain this edge in the lead-up to next year’s election.UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.
Gut check for Labour Party leader as England votes
On Thursday, millions of voters across England will cast ballots in the last set of local elections before a general election next year. At stake are more than 8,000 council seats … and the reputations of the two men leading the largest two parties.
For now, the Labour Party still holds a double-digit polling lead across the UK, but the party’s leader, Keir Starmer, faces doubts about his personal appeal.
As votes are counted in coming days, Labour hopes for local gains of at least 600 seats – though election experts insist the location of the seats matters too. Falling short of that number would leave Labour far less confident headed into next year, particularly at a time when doubts over Starmer’s likeability remain, and as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has restored some of the appeal his Conservative Party lost during the hyper-tumultuous premierships of David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss.
Local elections will follow two weeks from now in Northern Ireland, though there are no votes scheduled in Scotland or Wales.
FILE photo of Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Sturgeon’s bombshell upends UK politics
In last Friday’s edition, we documented the trials and tribulations now facing Britain’s Conservative Party. This week brought news that further disrupts UK politics.
On Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon dropped a political bombshell by announcing she’ll resign as Scotland’s first minister in the coming weeks. Much speculation has followed on why she’s quitting, but the larger question is what impact this will have on the ability of her party (the Scottish National Party) to deliver on the issue that has fueled her entire career: Scotland’s independence from the United Kingdom. Beyond Scotland, the Sturgeon news creates a major new headache for Conservatives.
Scottish independence?
First, there’s the question of Scotland’s future. “Sturgeon's resignation is a big setback to the prospects of Scotland leaving the UK in the foreseeable future,” says Eurasia Group’s Mij Rahman. Recent polls signal that Scottish public support for independence has advanced little since 55% voted against it in a 2014 referendum. (Recent polls, here and here, show the “no” votes still lead by 6-12 points.) And that’s after Britain voted for a Brexit that 62% in Scotland opposed and after 13 years of rule by Conservatives, who remain unpopular across much of Scotland.
After the UK Supreme Court ruled last November that Scotland can’t hold another independence referendum without (highly unlikely) approval from the UK government, Sturgeon proposed a plan to use upcoming elections in Scotland as a de facto independence vote. But many within her party have warned that she underestimates the risk of a bad result that might set the independence movement back still further, and many will now see Sturgeon’s resignation as an admission that she can’t lead the movement across the finish for the foreseeable future.
What’s next for Sturgeon’s party? Probably a bitter fight to replace her, one that could divide support for the SNP over other issues. In the meantime, her absence will slow the demand for another vote. “It will be much harder to keep the independence flame burning without her at a time when support for a breakaway appears to be on the wane,” notes Rahman.
Good news for Labour
Beyond Scotland, Sturgeon’s departure and tougher days for the SNP might prove great news for the Labour Party, which already enjoys a sizeable polling lead ahead of national elections, which are expected next year. (UK elections must be held no later than January 2025.) Rahman says that “Labour’s consistently weak performance in Scotland has been the major reason” that some still doubt it can win a parliamentary majority.
Before the SNP became the dominant force in Scottish politics, it was Labour that won the lion’s share of support from Scottish voters in national elections. Today, the SNP holds 48 of Scotland’s seats in the UK parliament, and Labour holds just one. But the disarray within the SNP following Sturgeon’s exit and a possibly ugly battle to succeed her might give Labour a critical few extra seats in a national vote it’s already favored to win.