Priti Patel called the European Court of Human Rights’ (EHCR) last-minute intervention in the first government deportation flight to Rwanda “scandalous”.
The flight was halted minutes before its scheduled take-off on Tuesday after the ECHR ruled that two of the asylum seekers who were to be on board should not be withdrawn from the UK until their appeals.
The interior minister said shortly afterwards that the new expulsion scheme would continue despite the false start. “Many of the withdrawals from this flight will be placed on the next one. Our legal team is reviewing all decisions made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now,” he said, though he withheld direct criticism. to the ECHR.
But on Friday, in an interview with The Telegraph, Ms Patel said: “The opaque way this court has worked is outrageous.”
He added: “We have not used this ruling before, which makes you question your motivation and lack of transparency.”
The late intervention on Tuesday led some members of the Conservative Party to demand that Britain withdraw from the ECHR, a Strasbourg court enforcing a convention drawn up in 1956 and ratified by 47 member states. It is not affiliated with the European Union.
Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said on Thursday that the government had no plans to leave the court, but said it had exceeded its powers to block the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda.
He said the UK could introduce new laws to ensure that interim court measures, such as last-minute intervention in Rwanda, could be ignored.