Robert Jenrick’s decision to resign as immigration minister over the alleged shortcomings of the government’s new safety of Rwanda bill is the latest evidence that Rishi Sunak is in a no-win situation on the issue he has chosen to put front and centre of his bid to remain in office.

Had he gone as far as allowing his ministers to ignore the European convention on human rights, the refugee convention and other international treaties – as Suella Braverman and others had called for – there were reportedly up to 10 ministers on the left of the party prepared to resign.

Yet failing to do so has cost him his immigration minister – and while one is definitely a much smaller number than 10, Jenrick’s departure is still a serious blow.

Sunak’s decision to dismiss Braverman from the cabinet agitated some on the Tory right. But any fair-minded observer, even if they support her stance on immigration, has to concede that he had more than adequate grounds to do so. No government can tolerate indefinitely a senior member of cabinet appearing to freelance on serious issues, and nobody was under any illusion that there was much goodwill or common ground between the prime minister and then-home secretary.

Jenrick is different. He is, or was, an ally of Sunak. When he was first sent to the Home Office in........

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