The prime minister must play by the rules, just like the rest of us

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

It’s not a good look, is it? Changing the law so you can do what you want anyway (Getty)

David Cameron resigned seven years ago. His close links to China through to his involvement in the Greensill lobbying scandal, leave many questions for him to answer – questions that should be answered before he has the power to vote on our laws, not after.

Even if the House of Lords Commission finds Cameron unsuitable to be a peer, the prime minister can ignore them anyway. That is a damning indictment of our broken political system.

The kneejerk making of policy on the fly is simply shocking, as is the way in which rules are ignored and overridden. The prime minister should not be able to appoint new lawmakers at a whim. That’s why we need a new second chamber that better represents the people.

But for now, the prime minister must play by the rules, like us ordinary mortals have to, and ensure that new Lords are vetted by the commission before they take their seat.

Steve Edmondson

Cambridge

Brexit backfires, and not for the first time

I’m slightly confused, didn’t we leave the EU to allow British courts to determine the laws of this country. So why then is, Rishi Sunak, stamping his feet so hard after the Supreme Court did just that? Or is there something else going on?

Robert Boston

Kent

Not in my name

It’s not a good look, is it? The highest court in the land humiliates you by ruling that what you want to do is illegal on the grounds of humanity, so you plan to change the law so you can do what you want anyway. Not in my name – nor, I suspect in the name of most in this country.

How low can this incompetent, divided, cruel and desperate government sink?

Tim Sidaway

Hertfordshire

Masters of manipulation

It seems beyond comprehension that some media and politicians are convinced that the Rwanda scheme is the most important thing the voting public wish to see in order for the Conservatives to have any chance of winning the next election.

I would dearly love to see the stats on what proportion of the voters really do consider this the biggest issue when asked a non-leading question on the subject. However, that is never going to happen. Our politicians, and the spin merchants they listen to, are masters of manipulation.

The answer to the issue of immigration is to seek to understand root cause as to why people are driven to leave their countries and to then work, internationally, to address this. But “root cause” thinking is difficult and the answers look to take too long. Oh and diplomacy and soft power have been defunded in favour of hard power and rhetoric. Of course, faffing about with initiatives that will never deliver the benefits expected are the political equivalent of empty calories.

Laura Dawson

Harpenden

Carelessness is a lifestyle choice

The Supreme Court’s press summary makes clear that the UK government’s Rwanda policy is unlawful because of the high risk of mistreatment and refoulement by Rwanda – meaning that asylum seekers received from the UK could be sent on to another country by Rwanda.

In 2001, the UK government criticised Rwanda for their poor human rights record, which included extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture. Rwanda continued with refoulement even after the UK government entered into the partnership with Rwanda in 2022. Expert bodies, including the UNHCR, had identified deficiencies in Rwanda’s practices, but then home secretary Suella Braverman failed to engage with this evidence and instead relied on assurances given by the Rwanda government.

Such was her incompetence and arrogance that I would like to suggest she should sell her home to contribute to the estimated £140m cost to the taxpayer of this failed policy and be given a “lifestyle” tent to live in.

John Rayner

North Dorset

Crueller and crueller

We have finally joined Alice down the rabbit hole. The Tories imagine that they can make a manifestly unsafe country safe simply by passing legislation that deems it to be safe. The Labour Party responds by doing its best to throw away the opportunity to get rid of a viciously xenophobic government by engaging in an internecine semantic argument about the difference between a ceasefire and a pause in hostilities. Tweedledum and Tweedledee come to mind.

In the meantime, premature babies die alongside thousands of women and children in Gaza, and desperate asylum seekers drown in the Channel.

David Maughan Brown

York

Tory wonder boy

Just what kind of a maverick is Tory MP Lee Anderson becoming?

The first thing Rishi Sunak said after the Rwanda ruling was that his party respected the law, to which Lee Anderson responded by saying that ministers should “ignore the laws”.

So, not content with causing another civil war within the Conservative Party, Rishi Sunak and former prime minister, now the new foreign secretary David Cameron plodded on anyway. What’s more, Anderson remains a Conservative Party national deputy chairman just to keep the blue-rinse brigade happy.

You couldn’t make it up!

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant