A government plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful, the High Court has ruled.

Lord Justice Lewis said the controversial policy, introduced under Boris Johnson, was “consistent with the refugee convention”.

However, he said the home secretary should look at people’s “particular circumstances” before deporting them to the central African country.

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The senior judge ruled the first eight people who were set to be sent to Rwanda had not had their circumstances “properly considered” by the person then in post, Priti Patel.

And as a result, their cases will be referred back to the current home secretary, Suella Braverman, “for her to consider afresh”.

The government announced its Rwanda policy back in April, which would see some asylum seekers who had reached the UK via small boat Channel crossings deported to Rwanda to have their cases processed.

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Ms Patel said it would help deter people from making the dangerous journey, but human rights campaigners, charities and opposition parties condemned the plan as inhumane.

The first flight was set to take off in June with four people on board but was halted after a number of legal challenges, with the European Court of Human Rights ruling the plan carried “a real risk of irreversible harm”.

However, both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss insisted they would push ahead with the policy when they took the keys to Number 10.

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