A threatened Tory rebellion failed to materialise on Wednesday night as MPs voted to approve prime minister Rishi Sunak’s setpiece immigration legislation.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill, to enable the deportation to the east African country of asylum seekers who arrive in the UK illegally, comfortably passed with 320 in favour and 276 against, after would-be rebels earlier admitted defeat. Just 11 Tory rebels voted against it.
The rebels, led by Brexiteer Bill Cash and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, had earlier tabled a series of amendments to toughen the bill, which they said was needed to make the Rwanda plan work as a deterrent to migrants.
Mr Sunak, however, dug in and refused to change it ahead of its critical third reading vote, citing concerns that the UK could breach international law. He refused to be swayed even after the resignation this week of Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith as deputy chairmen of the Conservative party, and called the rebels’ bluff.
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The receding rebellion was the third time in a year that a supposed revolt by right wingers against Mr Sunak’s leadership failed to materialise, following a backlash against the Windsor Framework last March and a previous Rwanda vote in December.
Earlier, MPs had spent a second day debating the Rwanda plan in the Commons ahead of a series of mini votes on the rebel amendments. None of the amendments passed although up to 60 Tory MPs backed them.
Suella Braverman, the hardline former home secretary whom Mr Sunak sacked in November, told her Conservative colleagues that this was their “last chance” to deal with the issue of illegal immigration before the election.
“We have stretched the patience of the British people. This comes down to a very simple but profound question, ultimately, of who governs Britain,” said Ms Braverman, who has long argued the country should ignore international law to deport migrants.
“Is it us, the democratically elected representatives… of the British people?” she said. “Or is it an opaque forum, many miles away in a different country, distant, outsourced, foreign [and] which does not share our values?”
She said the European Court of Human Rights was “controlling” the UK’s migration policy with its ability to issue rulings to block deportations.
Mr Jenrick, who quit as immigration minister to rebel against Mr Sunak’s plan, suggested the UK’s membership of the European court was not “sustainable”. He introduced one of the rebel amendments designed to prevent European judges issuing so-called Rule 39 orders to stop deportations, but it was heavily defeated.
Later in the afternoon, at about 5pm, more than 40 of the would-be Tory rebels gathered in a room along Westminster’s famous committee corridor to discuss strategy ahead of the crucial third reading vote. It soon became clear, however, that their revolt was melting away.
MPs who emerged from the meeting began briefing reporters waiting outside that the majority of those present had decided not to oppose Mr Sunak after all.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a high-profile Brexiteer who is now also a GB News presenter, was among those to confirm he would back the Bill, despite having repeatedly expressed reservations.
Earlier in the day, the issue of Rwanda was debated in the Commons between Mr Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions. Mr Starmer said the Tory internal wrangling was like watching “bald men fighting over a comb”.
He pressed Mr Sunak over the government’s admission that it cannot trace 85 per cent of the 5,000 or so illegal immigrants that it has pencilled in for deportation. “How do you lose 4,250 people?” asked Mr Starmer. “He [Mr Sunak] hasn’t got a clue where they are. [But] I’ll tell you one place that they aren’t, and that’s Rwanda.”
Mr Starmer chided Mr Sunak further by suggesting the prime minister had been “brutally exposed” by his own MPs during the rebellion. He said they were “all now in open revolt against him [Mr Sunak], each other, and reality”.
Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, earlier said in Davos that the UK’s attempts to implement the plan must not “drag on”. He also promised to repay the £250 million (€290 million) Britain has paid Rwanda so far to operate the plan, if it doesn’t get off the ground.
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