James Morris

QUENTIN LETTS: Suella Braverman used to reach the Commons frontbench, electric lightbulbs flashed, distant dogs howled, and clouds scudded across a silvery moon when Suella Braverman appeared. James Cleverly, her successor as Home Secretary, is a more emollient, centrist soul. That is not the same as saying he intends to get a lot done. After a turbulent few days, he turned up for his first Home Office questions. First, he was caught on Commons mics yelling a vulgar word about Stockton's fine town or (as he says) about its uninspiring Labour MP. Then he gave a newspaper interview in which he talked about the government's proposal to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda. You've been following these topics more closely than I do, but the Supreme Court has confirmed that it will infringe immigrants' human rights to force them to travel to Kigali by Queasyjet. Top judges are firmly of the view that foreign travel should be first-class or no. The UN rapporteurs are with them on this. In the goat class, there will be no UN rapporteur. Mr Cleverly's newspaper-interview shimmy away from Rwanda did not go well with all Conservative backbenchers, but no one went so far as to criticize him in the chamber. They were not gruntled, as you could tell. However, they were not yet ready to remove the lavatory chain from their hands.

As he appeared in the Commons, a group of MPs assaulted Home Secretary James Cleverly, alleging that international human rights legislation is not 'fit for purpose.' Mr Cleverly left his deputy Robert Jenrick to tackle the majority of the difficult cases, lauding his efforts on the halting of the boats as the pair attempted to avoid rumors of tensions. In an attempt to ban legal challenges to the UK deporting arrivals, the Rwanda deal is expected to be turned into a Treaty. The deal had been expected last week but it now looks unlikely to appear before next week, and likely not before Christmas.