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RISHI Sunak threw down the gauntlet to left-wing lawyers and anti-borders campaigners last night insisting “I am up for the fight” over Small Boats.

As the pro-migration “blob” plotted to torpedo his new Illegal Migration Bill in the courts, the PM insisted “we will win”.

Rishi Sunak at a special Stop The Boats press conference
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Rishi Sunak at a special Stop The Boats press conferenceCredit: Reuters
Home Secretary Suella Braverman listens as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference
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Home Secretary Suella Braverman listens as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conferenceCredit: Getty

And he vowed to do “whatever is necessary” to end the Channel crisis with illegal arrivals detained for 28 days before being deported.

Mr Sunak insisted Britain will use “every tool at our disposal”, adding his new law “is tough but it is necessary and it is fair” and will end “spurious human rights claims” clogging up the system.

Addressing aspiring migrants directly at a No 10 press conference last night, the PM said: “If you come to the UK illegally, you can’t claim asylum.

"You can’t benefit from our modern slavery protections. You can’t make spurious human rights claims. You can’t stay.”

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And he insisted if the bill is allowed to act as an effective deterrent: “They will not come and the boats will stop.”

To the public, he said: "I only promise what I can deliver, and I absolutely promise we will deliver on what I have promised today."

Mr Sunak added: “We have tried it every other way and it has not worked - this country and your government should decide who comes here, not criminal gangs.”

“Our system is being overwhelmed by those coming here illegally and jumping the queue and they are not the most vulnerable.”

And addressing the “blob”, the PM said: "Of course I am up for the fight, I wouldn't be standing here if I wasn't.”

Meanwhile the Home Secretary vowed to MPs “the fightback starts here” as ministers finally revealed their long awaited legal clampdown.

Suella Braverman said the public had been “taken for a ride” for years by illegal immigrants jumping the queue ahead of genuine asylum seekers.

Downing Street is braced for an almighty court clash against the new landmark immigration with lawyers and charities vowing to try to hamper any effort to fix the border chaos in Kent.

The Home Secretary insisted she was "confident" it would not break international law but admitted they were "testing the limits" in a bid to finally take back control of Britain's borders.

Yesterday the backlash from leftie lawyers, charities and Labour as they laid out their plan to make sure small boat migrants were swiftly removed within 28 days - and were never allowed to come back.

Ms Braverman admitted the tough new rules may get bogged down in complicated treaties and human rights conventions and there were "legal complexities" in the bill.

The nation's top lawyers have been working to make it as watertight as possible without leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.

Tory MPs last night lined up to back the crackdown - but warned that the UK would "remain tied up in legal knots" unless it reforms laws to stop European judges from interfering.

Mr Sunak insisted however that "We don't believe it is necessary to leave the ECHR."

Ms Braverman told MPs in the Commons last night "the fightback starts here".

She said: "The British people are famously a fair and patient people. But their sense of fair play has been tested beyond its limits as they’ve seen the country taken for a ride. Their patience has run out.

"They will not stop coming here until the world knows that if you enter Britain illegally you will be detained and swiftly removed."

And she hit back at claims people who want to control our borders are racist as she insisted millions of voters were being "betrayed" as Britain was left unable to control who comes into the country - at a total of £3 billion a year.

Mr Braverman dubbed the current rules as "yesterday's laws" that were "simply not fit for purpose".

Now tens of thousands of people who "jump the queue" to get to Britain via small boats by removing them from the UK within 28 days.

Anyone who comes to Britain illegally will be removed and banned from ever trying to settle here in a bid to smash the people-smuggling rings.

The list of safe countries will be expanded in law to make it clear when someone doesn't need protection from persecution back home - and people who pass through safe countries will get their claims thrown out.

Legal blocks will be thwarted by limiting the circumstances in which challenges will prevent someone from being removed.
Any other court clashes for individuals will be heard overseas after they've been removed to a third, safe country.

MPs will be able to set an annual quota on the number of refugees to be settled via safe and legal routes.

Military barracks and other cheaper accommodation will finally "end the farce of accommodating migrants in hotels".
Kids will be exempt from the rules - but face being kicked out when they turn 18 instead.

The Home Secretary will be subject to new legal powers to act to detain and remove people as soon as possible.

But last night the UN refugee agency has said it is “profoundly concerned” about the Bill.

And the Equalities and Human Rights Commission said they were "concerned that the legislation risks breaching the UK’s legal obligations under the Refugee Convention and ECHR."
Charities and activists also reacted with uproar to the new laws - and insisted they won't work.

Amnesty International's said it was a "shocking new low", adding: "There is nothing fair, humane or even practical in this plan, and it’s frankly chilling to see ministers trying to remove human rights protections for group of people whom they’ve chosen to scapegoat for their own failures."

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And the Refugee Council branded it "unethical and impractical" - claiming we were just as bad as evil warmongers Russia.

They said: "It is an approach more akin to authoritarian nations that walk away from international human rights treaties, such as Russia and Belarus, and is no way to treat those who have lost everything through no fault of their own."

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