Tory MPs are waging a substantial rebellion against legislation that would resurrect Rishi Sunak’s plan to relocate some asylum claimants to Rwanda.
More than thirty right-leaning backbenchers support plans to amend the measure the following week to make it more difficult for individuals to appeal deportation.
The extent of Tory division over the policy, which the Prime Minister has made a priority, is highlighted by the amendments.
Ministers maintain that the bill’s appeals allow for a “vanishingly small” number.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and a group of former cabinet ministers, including former home secretary Suella Braverman, support the amendments.
Robert Jenrick, a prominent rebel and former minister of immigration who resigned last month over the draft law, stated that the current measure would be unable to prevent a “merry-go-round” of individual appeals.
Prime Minister’s Questions were dominated by the Rwanda policy, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claiming the prime minister had been “obtained as a hostage by his own political party.”
Sunak’s Policy Reservations Unveiled
According to reports that surfaced over the weekend, Mr. Sunak was “caught red-handed” regarding the policy he had reservations about during his time as chancellor.
He can’t be candid about the failure of the Rwanda ploy, he said, because he is too afraid of his own members of parliament.
The prime minister responded that the government would honour its pledge to prevent migrants from traversing the Channel in small vessels.
According to Mr. Sunak, Labour has failed to present a “single practical idea” to mitigate unauthorised migration and “can never be relied upon to stop the boats.”
The measure was introduced by the government last month, subsequent to the Supreme Court’s ruling that its scheme to repatriate asylum seekers to the East African nation was unconstitutional.
The legislation aims to establish a legal declaration in the United Kingdom that Rwanda is a secure destination for refugees, thus preventing the legal grounding of flights.
Ministers had the authority to disregard urgent directives from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to halt a flight to Rwanda pending the outcome of a specific legal proceeding.
However, dissidents maintain that the policy could still be derailed by a deluge of individual appeals and seek to restrict the conditions under which such appeals would be permitted.
Additionally, they intend to establish ministers disregarding injunctions from the ECHR that impede flights as the default position.
“Favour the argument”
The amendments are doomed to fail at the upcoming Tuesday vote, as Labour MPs will find it difficult to provide the necessary support to overturn the government’s majority.
Nevertheless, the government’s measure may be jeopardised if the rebels vote against it in a subsequent phase if it remains unamended.
Mr. Sunak’s 56-seat majority could be overthrown by a coalition of 29 Members of Parliament who voted with Labour, an opposition party to the Rwanda policy.
Mr. Jenrick expressed the possibility of voting against the entire measure in the event that their suggested amendments failed to gain support.
He added, however, that he was “not anticipating that” and that the dissidents were merely seeking to “win the argument.”
Without a “sustainable deterrent” against asylum-seekers crossing the Channel, the existing bill was “guaranteed” to fail.
He further stated that appeals against deportations ought to be granted under restricted circumstances, including those involving pregnant women and individuals deemed unsuitable to fly.
Before the holiday season, Tory rebels had threatened to vote against the measure; however, they ultimately abstained, ensuring that it easily passed its initial parliamentary stage.
Nationwide coercion
It is improbable that ministers will make concessions to the rebels in an effort to gain their support until the measure reaches its final stages in Parliament.
Additionally, pressure is being applied on the government by Conservative MPs affiliated with the more progressive One Nation faction, who maintain that further tightening of the bill would constitute a violation of international law.
Rwanda has also issued a withdrawal threat from the program in the event that it fails to adhere to its international obligations.
Mr. Sunak, according to Downing Street, would consider amendments proposed by Conservative MPs, and “engagements” were occurring with backbenchers.
Nonetheless, his spokesman informed the media that the government would not tolerate any modifications that might “threaten” the United Kingdom’s agreement with Rwanda.
They added, “We require a bill with a respectable legal argument that does not derail the scheme.”
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