Johnson adds to pressure on Sunak to strengthen Rwanda Bill
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Boris Johnson has piled pressure on Rishi Sunak by backing Tory rebel amendments to toughen up the Rwanda Bill.
The former prime minister said the legislation to get deportation flights off to Rwanda must be “as legally robust as possible”, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “The right course is to adopt the amendments.”
Mr Johnson was the architect of the Rwanda scheme with Priti Patel, then his home secretary, in April 2022. In his post, he said: “Governments around the world are now trying to imitate the UK Rwanda policy for tackling illegal people trafficking.”
His intervention cames as, on Tuesday, MPs prepared for two days of debate discussing amendments to harden the Bill, which Mr Sunak wants passed as soon as possible to get deportation flights off to Rwanda in the spring.
Some 66 Tory MPs have so far backed one or more of the amendments making it harder for migrants to challenge their deportation and automatically block injunctions on the flights by European judges.
Sources have so far insisted that Downing Street will not accept any of the amendments, challenging the Tory rebels to provide legal proof for their claims that their changes would not breach international law.
However, the Prime Minister’s authority was challenged on Monday night when two deputy chairmen of the Conservative party announced that they would rebel over the Rwanda Bill.
Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith revealed they had signed the rebel amendments, effectively challenging Mr Sunak to sack them from their party posts.
He now has to make a decision whether to dismiss Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-Smith or keep them in their roles, potentially helping convince immigration hardliners to vote for the party. On Monday, he declined to say whether Mr Anderson would be disciplined if he rebelled.
The amendments are unlikely to be passed in Rwanda bill votes on Tuesday and Wednesday because they will be opposed by both the Government and Labour MPs.
The crunch vote will come at the third reading, expected on Wednesday, when the rebel MPs will decide whether they will vote down the entire Bill, which would effectively wreck the Rwanda plan.
The Telegraph has established that at least five former Cabinet ministers have warned they are prepared to vote down the Bill if the Government fails to agree to amendments to strengthen it.
On Tuesday, Miriam Cates, the co-chairman the New Conservative Group of MPs, said she would be prepared to vote against the Rwanda Bill if it is not amended, saying that the legislation in its current form would not stop the boats.
She told the BBC’s Today programme: “I would be prepared, but what I really want to see is the Government accept these amendments.”
Asked how many other people would be prepared to vote against it, she added: “I can only speak for myself. We’ve got 66 colleagues now with their names on these combined amendments. We’re very much looking at those amendments, making the arguments for them today, see if we can persuade the Government to accept them.”
It followed similar comments from Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary who, asked whether he would vote down the Bill, said: “I would hope not to, but I would be prepared to.”
Asked whether he would vote against the Bill if it is unamended, Sir Simon Clarke, a former levelling up secretary, said: “I very much hope that doesn’t happen. I have been clear with the whips that if the Bill goes forward unamended I will be unable to offer it my support.”
Sir Simon said there would be a “significant body” of Conservative MPs who would not be able to support the legislation “as it stands.”
Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, and Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, have also indicated they will vote against the Bill without major changes.
A fifth former Cabinet minister told The Telegraph he would vote against it “unless there are significant concessions”.
