How Britain plans to cut immigration

When the Conservatives came to power in 2010 they promised to reduce net migration to below 100,000 a year. Since the Brexit vote in 2016, there has been much talk of “taking back control” of Britain’s borders. The 2019 Tory manifesto pledged to reduce immigration, though it did not give a number. Yet immigration has continued to climb, and the battle to rein it in continues to have wider consequences.Illegal migration is the cause of bitter Tory infighting. On December 6th James Cleverly, the home secretary, unveiled new legislation designed to get round a ruling by the Supreme Court last month, which found that its cherished scheme to to Rwanda was unlawful. The bill orders the courts to ignore bits of domestic and international human-rights law; a new treaty with Rwanda, unveiled by Mr Cleverly earlier in the week, is meant to reassure judges that asylum-seekers sent there would be safe. That is not enough for hardliners who want to see Britain override a host of legal obligations, including the European Convention on Human Rights, in order to get flights to Kigali under way; Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, promptly resigned.