Sunak savaged in the Commons as MPs repeatedly warn Rwanda Bill ‘will not work’
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Rishi Sunak’s immigration policy was savaged in the Commons on Tuesday as a former minister warned the Prime Minister that his Rwanda plan “will not work”.
Robert Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister in December, said that this was the “last opportunity” to strengthen the Bill by accepting backbench rebel amendments.
Another Right-winger, Sir Simon Clarke, the former local government secretary, warned the Prime Minister that unless he accepted changes to the Bill, the Tories would have no chance of winning the next election.
Some 60 Conservatives defied Mr Sunak and voted for amendments to toughen up the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.
Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, two Tory vice-chairmen, resigned in order to vote against the Government – as did Jane Stevenson, Kemi Badenoch’s parliamentary aide.
Conservative backbenchers lined up to castigate Mr Sunak’s immigration policy, saying it would not be enough to stop the boats.
Mr Jenrick’s amendments to the Bill aim to severely limit individual asylum seekers’ ability to appeal against being put on a flight to Kigali.
He said: “The current Bill does not work. The test of whether it works is not whether we can get a few symbolic flights off in the months ahead, with a small number of illegal migrants on them.
“The test is whether we can create the kind of sustainable deterrent that we set out to achieve.”
The former minister urged Mr Sunak to accept changes backed by Right-wing Tory dissenters, as there was “no reason” why he could not unless the Government’s “goal posts have been shifted”.
He said his amendments, alongside those tabled by veteran Tory, Sir Bill Cash, “seek to address the evident flaws of the Bill”.
“They represent the last opportunity for us to get this policy right,” he added.
Mr Jenrick claimed the Bill as it stands will not provide a strong enough deterrent for what he called the “scourge of mass migration”, and claimed it needed to be tougher in order to provide a “sustainable deterrent” to people boarding small boats to cross the English Channel.
In its current state, Mr Jenrick said the Bill left loopholes open which would allow individuals to claim Rwanda would not be safe for them specifically, even if it was deemed a safe country overall.
He warned: “Of course as we have seen in the past, one person will mount a successful challenge, that will create a precedent.
“Time and again we will lose these cases in the courts. So the Bill in that respect is legally flawed.”
Sir Bill, the MP for Stone, said his amendment would disapply international law in deportation cases, and said: “We want the Bill to succeed, we want it to work, and we want to do what our voters want, but at present it does not.”
Sir Simon raised concerns about the Tories’ election prospects in the second half of this year, saying: “By that time, there will have, I’m afraid, been a contact between this Bill and the reality of our court system and I don’t think the outcome will be a pretty one.
“There will be time for it to have been tested and I fear there will be time for it to fail.”
He said the patience of the public with illegal migration would soon be “exhausted”.
“We have marched the British public up this hill not once but twice and failed both times,” he said. “This is our third attempt.
“And of course the Government’s own estimate as we know is that as we stand today, the Bill’s best chance can be rated at around 50/50. That is simply not adequate.”
Ms Stevenson, the parliamentary private secretary to the Business Secretary, said she would back rebel amendments and told the Commons that Mr Sunak “should get a move on”.
“It is a crisis and my constituents certainly want to see results on this crisis,” she said. “So I will support these amendments.”
Labour MPs voted against all the toughening-up amendments.
Stephen Kinnock, the shadow Home Office minister, said: “We on these benches will be proudly voting against the amendments that are being promoted by the benches opposite because the Government’s Rwanda policy is unaffordable, unworkable and unlawful, because this Bill is an affront to the values that we hold dear and because we will always stand up for the separation of powers, for the rule of law and for ensuring we can stand tall in the world.”
On Tuesday night, Danny Kruger, the co-chairman of the New Conservatives Group of MPs, said he was “prepared” to vote down the Bill but added: “We are not at that stage yet. I really hope the scale of the vote in favour of the amendments will convince the Government that they really should adopt the amendments as their own.
“We want [the Bill] to go a little bit further. The Parliamentary process allows for amendments like this to be tabled. Let’s see what they come back with tomorrow. We are in a positive conversation with the Government. The numbers speak for themselves.”
Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group, said the “numbers speak for themselves” when asked if he would vote down the Bill at the third reading on Wednesday.
“I hope very much that the Government will listen and as a result of this... that the Government will listen and take stock and that perhaps there will be some possibility of tightening the Bill,” he told Sky News.
“Given the size of the vote, if I were one of the Prime Minister’s advisers, I would be saying I think we want to compromise tomorrow if we can.
“We all want to stop the boats, we want to tighten the Bill so we can do that. We want to help honour the Prime Minister’s pledge to stop and the numbers speak for themselves.”
One Tory rebel source said on Tuesday night that the resignations of Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-Smith were “a loss to the top of the party”.
“They’re good people who represent their constituents,” the source said. “They’ve been brave and am sure they’ll continue to be brave to let their voters know where they stand on this issue.”
A spokesman for the New Conservatives group of MPs, to which Mr Anderson is aligned, said it was “politically damaging” to have lost him as deputy chairman. “It’s deeply unfortunate, sad and politically unhelpful for the Government to lose one of its most prominent and visible representatives of the Red Wall, especially over an issue as important as migration, and especially in the aftermath of The Telegraph poll,” he said.
Richard Tice, the leader of the Reform party, issued an invitation to the pair to join Reform. He told GB News: “I can confirm that Lee and Brendan would both pass our strict vetting process.”
