Magical Thinking and Obsessive Desires - Conservative Politics, Human Rights, and the Rwanda Judgment

Abstract

Two days before the UK Supreme Court declared the government’s Rwanda policy unlawful, PM Rishi Sunak rid himself of his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. The sacking, the ruling, and the aftermath demonstrate both a key division in the Conservative Party and illustrate the choice it faces on the kind of politics it will promote after the next election: socially liberal technocratic nationalism (the Sunak option) or illiberal ‘culture war’ nationalism (the Braverman faction). The Supreme Court’s judgment raises the stakes in this conflict because its grounds for ruling the Rwanda Plan unlawful appear to provide ammunition for the radical illiberal wing of the Conservative Party.

Keywords

• Extra- Territorial Asylum Processing
• Judicial Review
• Non Refoulement
• Off-Shoring Asylum
• Right to Asylum
• Rwanda Policy