According to the Times, Rishi Sunak has agreed to an amendment to the Illegal Migration Bill that would remove the right for British courts to apply the ECHR (HRA) in Rule 39 cases. 

Yet for ECHR opponents - a treaty agreement which had to be enshrined in the Human Rights Act (1998) due to our dualist legal system - Rule 39 is something of a red herring.

While it was indeed used to stop a deportation to Rwanda, it is a tiny part of the activist lawyer's ECHR arsenal. In 2021 for instance there were 51 applications, of which only 5 were granted. 

As this is not the primary basis on which most deportations are stopped by the courts, it will make little practical difference to future deportations being stopped. 

Its purpose therefore must be somewhat different. We submit this purpose is likely to be to cause a predictable media howling reaction that will allow the Conservative Party to present itself to the public as trying its best to be tough on immigration.  To allow corpulent Conservative MPs in marginal seats to wear a fig leaf before their voters and to give succour to those expecting a wipeout in the local May elections.

Meanwhile, Tim Loughton, the Conservative MP for East Worthing has advanced an amendment that wants to offer an additional 20,000 'safe route' refugee places each and every year to Third World peoples. In this, he is backed by at least another 12 of his wet Conservative colleagues. Loughton sits on the Home Affairs Committee. 

The additional twenty thousand mouths to be fed, clothed and housed will not be covered by Mr Loughton's £87,000 salary, but by the British taxpayer. 

This is in addition to the other official legal routes that have brought 25,000 Afghanis, 144,000 Chinese and at least 190,000 (2022) Ukrainians to our small island home.

Meanwhile, in 2022, the government granted almost 2,900,000 visas.