Suella Braverman accuses Sir Keir Starmer of trying to ‘sabotage’ efforts to stop small boats crossing Channel
SUELLA Braverman has accused Sir Keir Starmer of trying to “sabotage” efforts to stop small boats crossing the Channel.
The Home Secretary’s attack comes amid new revelations over Labour’s ties with lawyers and campaigners out to thwart the Rwanda deportation plan.
Ms Braverman fumed: “Sir Keir Starmer is secretly delighted at his web of cronies’ schemes to block our plans to stop the boats.
“He’s in this for political point-scoring and doesn’t care about what’s good for the country or the British people.”
She added: “While we are doing everything we can to stop the boats, Starmer and his activist friends are doing their best to sabotage our efforts so they can use it for cynical political gain.”
It has emerged that a senior lawyer leading efforts to block the Rwanda move also served as a race adviser to Labour.
Jacqueline McKenzie is head of immigration and asylum at Leigh Day — the law firm at the heart of legal challenges against Rwanda.
She had also represented people fighting deportation to Rwanda.
And she is listed as a director of charity Detention Action, which brought a legal challenge against the plan.
Ms McKenzie has also served on Labour’s race equality taskforce, advising Sir Keir on policies for the next election.
It also emerged that Labour activist Bella Sankey was a director of Detention Action.
Ms Sankey — now leader of Brighton and Hove City Council — has said the Rwanda plan amounts to “medieval-style banishment”.
Ministers accused Labour and its allies of “using every trick” in the book to try to thwart their bid to tackle illegal immigration.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick accused Sir Keir and his pals of sticking “two fingers up” to law-abiding Brits who want to see people smuggling gangs stopped.
Writing in today’s Sun on Sunday, Mr Jenrick says: “Sir Keir Starmer faces serious questions about his links with charities and lawyers who have campaigned to thwart our bid to stop the boats.
“Today we learn that a top lawyer who advised Labour on anti-racism policies is at the forefront of efforts to stop people being deported to Rwanda.
“A Labour council leader has also campaigned to stop deportation flights.
“Labour have tried to sabotage our plans to stop the boats in Parliament — and their colleagues and pals are working to sabotage the plan in the courts.”
Ms McKenzie is a partner at the Leigh Day law firm, which has represented charity Asylum Aid in its court battles to block the Rwanda plan.
In 2021, she represented a Jamaican convict — who had served eight years for kidnapping — in lodging a last-minute appeal to avoid deportation because of his high blood pressure.
She has repeatedly voiced her opposition to the Rwanda plan.
In June, she tweeted: “Incredible day to be in the Court of Appeal to witness the handing down of the decision on the lawfulness of the Rwanda Migration & Economic Development Plan.
“Asylum seekers can breathe for another day, just.”
In April last year, she tweeted a decision to “send asylum seekers to Rwanda is horrific & impractical”.
‘Bid to stop the boats’
Ms McKenzie also declared “deportation is ghastly and inhumane” and called for “law, activism and resistance to end this ghastly practice” in a tweet thread in 2021.
The senior lawyer has also used modern slavery laws to stop a client being deported to Rwanda.
She served as an adviser to Labour’s race taskforce, which was coming up with policy ideas for Sir Keir’s election manifesto.
It has now finished its work and been disbanded.
Meanwhile, Labour activist Ms Sankey has also led the charge against the deportation deal.
In April 2022, Detention Action launched its first legal case against the Rwanda policy.
In the press notice, she wrote: “This legal action is brought on behalf of all those who are vulnerable to medieval-style banishment for daring to seek sanctuary in the UK.” She stepped down from her role in May.
A Labour spokeswoman said: “The Government has sent more Home Secretaries to Rwanda than asylum seekers.
“Ministers have written a £140million cheque to Rwanda for a removals policy that has totally unravelled, with another £170,000 promised per person — despite evidence the scheme won’t act as a deterrent and risks making trafficking worse.
“In the meantime, the Conservatives have let criminal gangs run rings around them.
“Labour would redirect spending from the unworkable Rwanda scheme to set up a new cross-border police unit to crack down on people smugglers and disrupt the dangerous criminal networks that make a mockery of our border security and criminal justice system, and put lives at risk”.
Ms McKenzie said: “As a solicitor, I represent my clients to ensure the law is applied accurately to their cases, the outcome of which is determined by the courts.
“I have not been involved in the JR [judicial review] challenge to the Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership, but two of the most senior judges in the UK ruled the plan is unlawful.
“In respect of the Labour Party, I was invited to volunteer on a multi-sectoral group chaired by Baroness Doreen Lawrence to examine race disparities in the UK, similar to a group chaired by Tony Sewell for the Conservative Party.
“I also sat on another group chaired by Priti Patel MP on the Windrush Scandal and was pleased to — 90 per cent of my work is in supporting Windrush victims.”
Ms Sankey said: “The Rwanda plan is an unethical waste of taxpayer money.
“But let’s be clear, it was British judges who stopped the plan in its tracks, because it is against the law, not the Labour Party.”