Rishi Sunak faces Commons showdown on Rwanda scheme as Tory right-wingers revolt
Rishi Sunak is facing a massive Tory rebellion over his flagship Rwanda Bill as more than 30 MPs try to force changes to the legislation.
Former Cabinet ministers, including Robert Jenrick, Suella Braverman and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, are seeking to amend the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill during crunch debates next week. Mr Sunak scraped through a Commons vote before Christmas - despite 29 of his own MPs abstaining - after a backbench revolt on the plans.
But Tory right-wing factions, who dubbed themselves the "Five Families" after the US mafia, have threatened they could torpedo the Bill if it isn't toughened up. Mr Sunak is scrambling to pass the emergency legislation in order to salvage his stalled plan to deport migrants to Rwanda, which was declared unlawful by the Supreme Court last year.
Robert Jenrick resigned from Government in protest over Rishi Sunak's Rwanda legislation (PA Wire)Mr Jenrick, who quit as a minister over the Bill, said it "simply doesn't work" and claimed the Government's own legal advice said it had a "50% chance at best" of getting a single flight off to Rwanda before the next election. "When the stakes are so high for the country I don't think that's acceptable," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "This is the third piece of legislation in three years, it's three strikes or you're out, we've got to get this right.
The top Tory has tabled 15 amendments, signed by 35 rebel Tories, which he says will end so-called "pyjama injunctions" by the European Court of Human Rights and also to tighten the grounds on which illegal migrants can bring individual claims. Right-wingers Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates, who head up the New Conservatives group, said that the amendments were "proportionate, consistent with our international obligations, and have respectable legal arguments behind them". "As with the rest of the Bill, and the Rwanda plan in general, they are tough - because they need to be."
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If 29 Tories oppose the legislation then the Government could be defeated, as Labour opposes the Rwanda scheme. Mr Sunak told rebels he welcomed "bright ideas" on how to improve the Bill but he has little ground to give as the Rwandan Government could pull out of the scheme if it breaks international law.
In another headache for the PM, he faces resistance from the centrist One Nation Tories, who want to ensure international law is respected. Former Deputy PM Damian Green said: "The Prime Minister's looked me in the eye and said that he doesn't want to go any further." The legislation will have two days of debate in the Commons next week before a crunch third reading vote. It would then face heavy scrutiny in the House of Lords.
During PMQs on Wednesday, Keir Starmer also accused Mr Sunak of being taken hostage by his own party over the failing "Rwanda gimmick". Speaking in the Commons, the Labour leader said: "He knows the Rwanda gimmick won't work but he can't be honest about it because he's too scared of his own MPs, doesn't he wish he had stuck to his guns rather than allow himself to be taken hostage by his own party?"
He added the Tory leader had also been "caught red handed" amid reports he opposed the flagship policy while he was Chancellor in Boris Johnson's government. Mr Starmer said: "I notice he didn't deny it. I am not surprised, £400 million of taxpayers money down the drain, no one sent to Rwanda, small boats still coming. It is hardly a surprise he wanted to scrap the scheme when he was trying to sneak in as Tory leader."
In response, the PM said: "I have always been crystal clear you do need to have an effective deterrence to finally solve this problem, in fact the National Crime Agency agree that you need in their words an effective removals and deterrence agreement and that is why after becoming Prime Minister I negotiated a new deal with Albania, thanks to which we have seen a 93% drop in illegal arrivals from Albania."
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