Rishi’s tough immigration policy is the big bazooka he needs to destroy Labor – and it’s time he used it

AFTER nearly 100 days in office, Rishi Sunak knows his time is up.

He is under siege from all sides over screw taxes, rampant illegal immigration and troubled relations with Brussels.

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He has just 18 months to prepare for a massive general election that many in his own party have already written off as a lost cause.

And he’s come under fire from Tory critics, not least die-hard fans of Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister and potential comeback kid.

He needs a big bazooka.

Now, after weeks of detailed planning, Rishi is armed and ready for action.

The embattled Prime Minister is ready to take on Labor and the immigration lobby, risk a fight with the EU and rally support from the Tory Brexiteers, who are BoJo’s strongest allies.

From the moment he stepped onto No. 10, Rishi identified illegal immigration as the acid test of the 2016 referendum pledge to “take back control.”

He devoted those 100 days to detailed planning with Secretary of the Interior Suella Braverman.

Under new laws, all migrants who arrive illegally – including the tens of thousands being shipped across the Channel by people smugglers – will be refused asylum or sent elsewhere, including Rwanda.

Attempts by immigration lawyers to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights are halted.

This is a red rag for Labour, the human rights lobby, the ‘Wet’ Tories – and the EU, which demands total obedience to crooked judgments by unaccountable and often unqualified judges at the ECtHR.

It will also be a challenge for the ECHR itself, which in the past has been reluctant to take on nation states in striking down such primary laws.

Border Force experts predict illegal numbers will rise 50 percent this year, from 45,000 in 2022 to 65,000.

Talent for escapology

So a nightmare for Labor leader Keir Starmer.

He knows illegal immigration is the main reason millions of Red Wall voters switched from Labor to Tory in 2019.

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Supporting tough action would split Labour.

To oppose it would condemn Labor forever as the party of uncontrolled mass immigration.

Importantly for Rishi Sunak, it would undo Boris Johnson’s not-so-subtle attempt to move from ex-PM to next PM in one quick move.

It would be foolish to write off BoJo, despite all the historical clutter that litters his path.

The “greased piglet” has a talent for escapology second only to The Great Houdini and a guy named Lazarus.

Flash in the pan Prime Minister Liz Truss is also offering cover today for calls for a tax cut for growth.

Boris has re-emerged in bullish form after a brief hiatus drawing pictures of cows.

In what appeared to be a pep talk to supporters, he told ex-Cabinet ally and TalkTV presenter Nadine Dorries that the Tories had everything to offer.

“Let me be absolutely clear that the Conservative Party can certainly win the next election. Yes, absolutely,” he said.

He left it to others to complete the sentence. . . “With me as Prime Minister.”

Boris is right about one thing.

Despite Labor’s 20-point lead in polls, there is little appetite for Labor leader Keir Starmer, whom he aptly dubbed “Old Sir Crasheroonie Snoozefest”.

Labor is said to fear a BoJo comeback.

Despite threats of expulsion from parliament by hateful MPs via Partygate, the old rascal is still a virtuoso magnet for votes.

But Crasheroonie is also vulnerable to well-conceived Tory policies that actually address the concerns of millions of frustrated Brexit voters across all parties.

Soaked half-life

Boris Johnson won his stunning 2019 landslide by pledging to deliver Brexit, revitalize the UK as an international trading nation and regain control of our borders.

Instead, the best we can claim after three long years is a sodden half-life on the edge of Europe, a sluggish economy still partly governed from Brussels, and an open target for a non-stop armada of criminal asylum scammers.

Now Rishi Sunak seems ready to deliver.

Previous British politicians have been reluctant to interfere in a human rights structure set up by British leader Winston Churchill after World War II.

But this bastion of humanity has been used as a bludgeon by Brussels to punish Brexit Britain for daring to vote to leave.

Rishi is right to tell time.