His Bill may be held up in the Lords as he continues to insists that his Government will stop the boats. The only means of squaring the two would be an election with illegal migration centre-stage.
The former Home Secretary concluded by saying that if Rishi Sunak has “the political courage to do what is truly necessary” in tackling mass illegal immigration “he will have my total support”. She called for Britain to leave the European Court of Human Rights.
It is one thing to insist that the executive operates within the constraints of the law; it is quite another, and grossly improper, to claim that the Government cannot try to pass new legislation to alter those constraints.
Doing the minimum possible on legal migration would have the unwelcome effect for the Prime Minister of prolonging and intensifying debate about it.
The Government needs as broad a coalition of voices as possible to tackle the fissure opening up in our constitution and public life.
The issue of immigration is now fully back at the centre of our national life and will exert a profound influence on the outcome of the rapidly approaching general election next year.
The rage, frustration and contempt of its terms are a foretaste of what’s to come if the Conservatives lose the next election.
The joint One Nation Caucus and Tory Reform Group conference last weekend, following the recent National Conservative Conference, are pointers to the shape of a possible future.
If Sunak doesn’t commit the Conservatives to leaving, and then somehow wins the next election, the next Leader of the Opposition will take up the cause.
Why should a previous government’s commitment to the international community trump (in practice if not in legal theory) a later government’s commitments to the British people?
They clearly believe that judges are increasingly taking upon themselves the role of MPs – and are willing to leave the Convention in consequence.
He could look again at short sentences. I wanted to scrap them – they are counter-productive in reducing reoffending and cause a great deal of disruption to prisons.
No, his does not mean that the UK has become “ungovernable” or that it will be “impossible for Ministers to do their job” or that his departure is a victory for “the Remainer blob” or evidence that the public sector is full of “snowflakes”.
They have been introduced in response to backbench pressure – with the Government seeming to accept the argument that the Bill as introduced was vulnerable to litigation. Parliament should accept them, but should be aware that some risks remain.
At the end of the day, people will only stop coming here illegally when they know that they cannot stay, will be detained and quickly removed to a safe third country.