UK Minister for Immigration resigned over the new government’s Rwanda asylum policy.

Robert Jenrick resigned saying the government's published draft emergency legislation aimed at getting its Rwandan migrant deportation scheme up and running did not go far enough.

Jenrick said in a resignation letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak which he posted on X [ former Twitter] that the legislation offered one of the last opportunities to tackle the small boats crisis before an election expected next year and the government's plans were a triumph of hope over experience.

The legislation needed to go further to limit the opportunities for domestic and international courts to challenge the policy, he said.

"One of the great advantages of our unwritten constitution is the unfettered power of our sovereign parliament to create law, and that is a power we must take full advantage of. The government has a responsibility to place our vital national interests above highly contested interpretations of international law," he said in his resignation letter.

"I am unable to take the currently proposed legislation through the (House of) Commons as I do not believe it provides us with the best possible chance of success."

Jenrick was a close political ally of Sunak since when both worked in parliament as conservative Members of Parliament. In 2019, the two wrote a joint article with Oliver Dowden, now the deputy prime minister, backing Boris Johnson for the Conservative Party leadership.

A member of parliament since 2014, Jenrick previously served as a junior minister in the health and finance departments as well as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Over recent days, Jenrick, who had been immigration minister since October last year, has been more outspoken on the need to tackle the arrival of small boats on the southern coast of England. He has developed a comprehensive upstream strategy to disrupt the organized immigration crime gangs in important countries including Italy, Belgium, Turkey, and Bulgaria…and he believes that this will facilitate tackling illegal immigration. 

On Tuesday, Jenrick said that people who arrived in the small boats were breaking into Britain and it was “profoundly wrong" for people to be entering the country in this way.

"If you or I crossed an international border, or broke into another country, we would expect to be treated very seriously," he told Sky News.

It is with great sadness that I have written to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as Minister for Immigration.

I cannot continue in my position when I have such strong disagreements with the direction of the Government’s policy on immigration. pic.twitter.com/Zg3ezFJr8t — Robert Jenrick (@RobertJenrick) December 6, 2023

He shared his resignation letter on X, moments after Home Secretary James Cleverly confirmed his colleague's departure following repeated questioning in the Commons. But in his response, the prime minister called the resignation disappointing, saying he feared the minister's departure was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation, and that it was “our experience that gives us confidence that this will work.”