Rwanda ruling: Windsor Framework has to go if there is to be 'any meaning at all' to the term United Kingdom says DUP MP ​Sammy Wilson

The DUP MP made the comment after the High Court ruled that the government’s flagship Rwanda immigration policy cannot apply in Northern Ireland because of the UK-EU deal.

Mr Wilson said the ruling should come as no surprise as DUP MPs have raised it in parliament – to denials from the government.

The judgement effectively stops the Rwanda immigration scheme from operating here – exposing a key pledge in the government’s deal with the DUP as false and raising further questions about Northern Ireland’s increasing detachment from the rest of the UK.

It comes despite repeated assurances from the government – including in its Safeguarding the Union deal with the DUP – that it had the power to legislate for all of the United Kingdom on such matters.

Sammy Wilson told the News Letter: “Yet another part of the promise made in the deal has proven just to be a tissue of lies. I have no doubt ministers knew this when they made those promises. We have a government now that would say anything to get things through, they have no moral compass”.

Asked about why the DUP backed the Safeguarding the Union deal when it was aware of – and had raised in parliament – concerns about the effect of the framework on the Rwanda legislation, the East Antrim MP said: “Not all of us backed the deal”.

He added: “There were so many things that we were unhappy about, so many things that hadn’t been nailed down, so many things you just knew on the surface couldn’t be fulfilled”. Mr Wilson said it was the second issues in the past week to raise questions about the deal after a minister didn’t rule out the possibility of border controls on goods travelling from NI to GB.

He added: “It shows that the Windsor Framework has to go if there’s to be any meaning at all attached to the term United Kingdom”.

In response to comments from the solicitor for the 16 year old Iranian boy who brought the challenge that it was the “beginning of the end” for the government’s Rwanda policy, Mr Wilson said it would be good if it was. “It would… illustrate once again that the government cannot make national policies while the Windsor Framework is in place”, he said.

“The logical conclusion of this [is that] you could end up with a people border. That would be a real disaster”.

The High Court found that the Illegal Migration Act (IMA) unlawfully diminishes the rights of asylum seekers, trafficking victims and unaccompanied children – and that parts of it breach the framework and should therefore be disapplied in Northern Ireland. Challenges were mounted by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a 16-year-old boy from Iran who travelled to the UK alone to claim asylum.

The IMA was an attempt by the government to deter channel crossings by deporting migrants to Rwanda for processing.

In his judgement, Mr Justice Humphreys said it “does not represent the will of the Courts, but this represents the will of Parliament.”

The increasing detachment of Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK on such key areas is causing grave concern among unionist politicians.

TUV leader Jim Allister said it was yet another “savaging of UK sovereignty” – while the DUP peer Lord Nigel Dodds said it “confirms the detrimental anti Union constitutional ramifications” of the Windsor Framework.

Should the ruling go without successful challenge by the government, it could result in the Windsor Framework creating not just a all-Ireland goods market – but effectively a separate immigration system in the province than operates in Great Britain.

It is now very clear that the framework affects much more than trade, despite a claim in the ‘Safeguarding the Union’ deal that “the Windsor Framework applies only in respect of the trade in goods”.

The concerns about the broad reach of the framework into areas beyond trade are not new.

They were publicly raised by DUP MPs including its now leader Gavin Robinson, before Sir Jeffrey Donaldson secured support for the deal at the DUP executive, saying it “safeguards Northern Ireland's place in the Union”.