 |
| Sunak’s safety of Rwanda bill is expected to face serious opposition in the House of Lords. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock |
Rishi Sunak's Rwanda deportation bill has passed its third reading in the Commons following a damaging row over the bill. The bill was defeated by 11 Conservative hardliners, including former home secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who voted against it by 320 votes to 276, a majority of 44. Sunak now faces further battles with peers already threatening to amend the Rwanda deportation plan in the House of Lords to ensure it complies with international law.
The legislation will then face legal challenges from individuals threatened with deportation to Rwanda. Government lawyers have suggested there is only a "50/50" chance of the first flight taking off before an autumn general election. The Home Office has already selected the first 100 people who will be deported, and officials said the cases had been chosen because there were no apparent grounds for appeal.
Sunak has been weakened by the resignations of two Conservative party deputy chairs, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, and scores of his MPs arguing that the policy will not work. On Wednesday, 61 Tory MPs voted for an amendment drafted by Jenrick to block last-minute injunctions from European judges. The amendment was ultimately rejected by MPs by 65 to 536.
The government had announced several "sweeteners" to make the bill more acceptable to Tory MPs, including a planned change to Whitehall rules, meaning civil servants must ignore Strasbourg judgments halting Rwanda deportation flights. However, unions condemned the plans, which mean that Home Office staff removing asylum seekers will be told to implement last-minute injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights only if ordered to do so by a minister. Three civil service unions said this would mean that senior mandarins and border force staff would have to choose between breaking international law, disobeying the instructions of a minister, and resigning.
Ministers announced plans to expand court capacity and recruit 150 new judges to fast-track asylum appeals under the Rwanda bill. The most senior judge in England and Wales, Sue Carr, spoke out after the announcement, saying the deployment of judges should be "exclusively a matter for the judiciary." However, ministers could not offer the concessions to harden the bill due to warnings from the 100-plus One Nation group of center-right MPs that they could not tolerate attempts to make the legislation even more hardline.
Jeremy Wright, the former Conservative attorney general, said it would be a mistake for the government to imply that international law does not matter. In the Commons, Braverman had pleaded with colleagues to vote against the bill, telling them: “This is our last chance to fix this problem. If we get it wrong, the British people will not forgive us.”
Tory rebels even drafted their own Rwanda bill, which they said would block all migrant appeals against deportation without breaching international law. A total of 11 Tory MPs voted against the bill, including former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, veteran Tory Bill Cash, and New Conservatives leaders Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger. A further 18 from both wings of the party abstained.
There were absurd moments in a day of drama, as Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, suggested that the UK's plans to bring in its deportation plan were taking too long. Kagame said that the money would be used on those who would come. Still, a Rwandan government spokeswoman later said the country has "no obligation" to return any of the funds paid, but if the UK requested a refund, "we will consider this."
The UK has agreed to pay Rwanda an additional £1.5bn under a five-year deal, which would only apply to a portion of funds allocated explicitly for migrants' support. However, senior Home Office officials have not disclosed the amount of additional funding. The Refugee Council's chief executive, Enver Solomon, has criticized the government's plan, stating that it is unworkable and will cause more human suffering. He fears that many desperate people will disappear, facing abuse and exploitation to avoid being sent to Rwanda.
