According to the Tories, Judicial Reviews, Court of Appeal judgements and our rule of law are a “farce”
Boris Johnson is to use a growing row over the deportation of dozens of Jamaican criminals as a battering ram against the judiciary.
Downing Street hit out at the judicial review process today after a last minute court order prevented the return of 25 serious criminals to Kingston following claims they were denied access to lawyers.
Government sources said the decision by the Court of Appeal and the row over the deportation flight showed why an examination of judicial review was needed. Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s most senior aide, said the process was “a farce”.
“We bitterly regret this decision which prevents the removal from our country of foreign criminals convicted of rape, manslaughter, sexual attacks, violence and drugs crimes which spread misery across our communities,” the spokesman said.
A dozen separate applications for judicial review were filed in recent days in connection to the deportation flight, sources said.
A government spokesman said: “The legal process for removing these offenders, which has included repeated appeals and judicial reviews, has already cost the British public tens of thousands of pounds.”
Mr Cummings said that there must be “urgent action on the farce that judicial review has become” following the Court of Appeal decision, according to ITV News.
The Tories also seized on Labour’s criticism of the deportation flight and claimed it showed they have not learnt lessons from the drubbing of last year’s general election.
A senior Tory source said: “The Westminster bubble’s view in trying to halt this flight with repeated judicial reviews makes the case perfectly to the public about why such a review is needed and why certain parts of Westminster still haven’t learned the lesson from the 2019 election.”
Two rapists given sentences of 11 years and four years and six months respectively were among 17 Jamaican nationals deported on board the 6.30am flight today.
Others on the flight included three robbers including one sentenced to life imprisonment and another sentenced to nine years for conspiracy to rob and possession of a firearm.
Eight of those on board had convictions for drugs offences including intent to supply class A substances and importing controlled drugs.
Three had convictions for violence including one who had been sentenced to eight years and another to seven years for assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and possession of a weapon in a public place.
Last minute legal challenges meant the Home Office was unable to deport 25 other offenders including two convicted of rape or sexual offences, one of manslaughter, one for a firearms crime, seven with convictions for violence and 14 of drugs crimes.
Last night, the Court of Appeal banned the deportation of more than half of those due to leave on the flight after claims that they were denied access to lawyers in an eleventh-hour legal challenge by campaigners.
The charity Detention Action successfully argued that offenders at Colnbrook and Harmondsworth immigration removal centre were unable to get legal advice because of a lack of phone coverage for O2 users caused by a faulty phone mast.
All deportees were Jamaican nationals who have been convicted of criminal offences and served prison sentences of 12 months or more.
After the flight departed Downing Street issued a strongly-worded statement today criticising the courts and vowing to appeal the deportation ban on the 25 other convicts.
No 10 said it made “no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders” as it hit out at the judicial system for leaving the taxpayer with “an even bigger bill” following the Court of Appeal ruling.
It claimed detainees had ample access to other methods of communication during the mobile network outages, including free sim cards upon request, access to landlines and the internet and face-to-face legal surgeries.
The prime minister’s spokesman added: ‘The legal process for removing these offenders, which has included repeated appeals and judicial reviews, has already cost the British public tens of thousands of pounds.
“The taxpayer will now be left with an even bigger bill and the prospect of convicts who are considered to pose a threat to the UK being granted bail while this matter is resolved.
“We make no apology whatsoever for seeking to remove serious foreign national offenders and will be urgently appealing.’
“The government has already promised to review the judicial review process and is likely to fast track its efforts following the latest deportation setback.”
Amanda Pinto QC, chairwoman of the Bar Council, said: “Judicial review is a hugely important tool in a democratic society by which decisions of public authorities, including government, are subject to legal scrutiny.
“Far from being a mark of dysfunction, judicial review is an appropriate check on decision-making, of which a nation should be proud.
“We have not yet seen details of what a ‘review’ of the judicial review process might look like, but anything that seeks to limit the ability of ordinary citizens to challenge decisions of those with power is a red flag.”
Caroline Goodwin, QC, of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “Judicial review is a process to keep a check on authorities acting beyond the legal remit that may have been granted to them by the law, thus playing a part to ensure the law applies equally to everyone; this is what the rule of law means.”
The shadow attorney-general Baroness Chakrabarti said: “There is no democracy without the rule of law.
“These attacks on journalists and judges are chronic symptoms of an entitled Tory government that is desperate to avoid scrutiny, and is out of control.”
Its a natural reaction, and the only ethical and moral option people can take.
Trumpists and Johnson Nationalists shouldnt be normalised as right wing. Tories circa 2013, or Bush era Republicans are right wing. Our present situation isnt even close.
