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Civil Service unions and Conservative rebels have dismissed Government attempts to order officials to ignore international law on the Rwanda scheme as a “put-up job” and “bluster”.
Ministers are expected to confirm on Wednesday a clarification of the Civil Service code designed to stop officials advising against overriding European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings that could block deportation flights to Rwanda.
It has been viewed as an attempt to dampen a rebellion from Tory MPs on the issue in a Commons vote on Wednesday by removing barriers to Rishi Sunak’s claim he was willing to ignore last-minute injunctions from the ECHR in certain circumstances.
But a senior rebel source described the move as a “put-up job” designed to try and stop MPs voting for a move by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick to toughen up the Rwanda legislation to make it the default position in law to ignore the rulings.
Whitehall unions said the plans would make officials “complicit in illegality”, in conflict with their duty in the Civil Service code to obey the law.
The move comes after home secretary Dame Priti Patel on Tuesday urged Rishi Sunak to ensure “all potential roadblocks are removed, including the Civil Service blob”.
The senior Tory said the Prime Minister should make clear that the “Civil Service code cannot be used by officials to obstruct decisions”.
i understands that Home Office ministers have in the past felt frustrated by senior civil servants at the department, who they feel have put up barriers to deportation flights of foreign criminals in the past due to legal concerns.
Downing Street insisted it would not “rewrite” the Civil Service code and wants to provide “clarity” for ministers and officials over the application of the Rwanda Bill, which is expected to be approved by MPs on Wednesday night.
The move is expected to be confirmed in an exchange of letters between Home Office and Cabinet Office.
But a senior Tory rebel source said the move would not stop MPs backing Mr Jenrick’s amendment which is designed to make it mandatory for ministers to ignore so-called “rule 39” ECHR interim injunctions, which grounded the first Rwanda flight in 2022.
“It’s a distraction tactic,” the source said.
“A put-up job to say ‘Look over there!’ and blame the civil servants.
“The courts are the ones who block the flights and the Attorney General’s advice alongside Sir James Eadie is clear – you can’t ignore Strasbourg’s rule 39s, in all but exceptional and irrelevant circumstances, without breaching international law.
“We need to legislate to sort the problem.”
Unions have reacted angrily to the plans.
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, said amending the code would amount to ministers obliging officials to breach the law and would put civil servants in an “invidious position”.
“The ministerial code says you should not put civil servants in a position where there’s a conflict between their obligations under the Civil Service code and instructions you give them as a minister.
“Pretending that you can do that is not actually doing it because a civil servant has to deal with facts, not illusion or bluster or rhetoric,” he said.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka, who represents officials in the Home Office, said: “This latest ruse by ministers is symptomatic of their desperation to keep their unlawful, unworkable and inhumane Rwanda scheme on life support.
“In continuing to push the scheme, ministers are acting unlawfully.
“Now they appear to be trying to force civil servants to do the same.
“This attempt to rewrite the Civil Service Code is an unacceptable attempt to make civil servants complicit in illegality.”
Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, also labelled any move to change the code a “desperate attempt by the party of government to placate their own backbenchers”.