MPs support Rwanda bill as Sunak defeats Tory rebels

Rishi Sunak got his important Rwanda bill approved by the House of Commons, despite a rebellion from some members of the Conservative party not happening.

The bill to prevent legal challenges against sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was passed with 320 votes for and 276 votes against.

Many Conservative party members thought the bill was wrong and had said they would not support it, but in the end, only 11 of them voted against it.

The bill will now be reviewed by the House of Lords, and it’s expected to meet strong resistance.

Mr Sunak thinks that sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda will stop others from trying to come to the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats. But the Labour party thinks this plan is just a costly trick.

The government wants to start the flights to Rwanda by the spring.

The prime minister will give a speech at Downing Street about the policy at 10:15 GMT.

In the last two days, some Conservative Party MPs have tried to make changes to the bill. They say that, without changes, the government’s plan for Rwanda could be stopped by the courts.

On Wednesday, ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick proposed a change that would allow the UK government to not follow some human rights laws when sending people to Rwanda.

Mr Jenrick suggested a change that would make sure that government officials will always say no to temporary orders from the European Court of Human Rights that come at the last minute.

This rule stopped a flight to Rwanda in June 2022.

The amendment was not supported by Members of Parliament but 61 Conservative members backed it – the largest rebellion during Mr. Sunak’s time as leader.

Some Members of Parliament said they might not vote at all or vote against the whole bill if it didn’t change.

If about 30 Conservatives had voted against the bill, it could have failed. This would have hurt the prime minister’s power a lot and could have been very bad for him.

However, only 11 Members of Parliament, including Mr. Jenrick and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, voted against it.

Other members of the Conservative party on the list are Miriam Cates, Sir Simon Clarke, Mark Francois and Danny Kruger.

Eighteen Conservative Members of Parliament didn’t vote, but some might have just missed the vote instead of intentionally choosing not to vote.

Danny Kruger, a Conservative, voted against the bill. He said some of his colleagues supported the bill even though they were worried about it, to avoid causing problems in politics.

Sir Simon Clarke, who is against the bill, said: “All Conservatives want the Rwanda policy to work well. Some of us are worried about the bill, but history will show who was correct.

Labour did not like the bill. Yvette Cooper, who is in charge of home affairs for Labour, called the policy a “expensive trick” because it has not yet sent any asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Home Secretary James Cleverly supported the plan by saying that it clearly shows if you come to the United Kingdom illegally, you can’t stay.

“He said that this law was carefully written to stop the cycle of court battles. ”

The argument about the law showed that Conservatives are still divided. On Tuesday evening, two deputy chairmen, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, gave up their positions to vote for the changes proposed by rebels.

Mr Clarke-Smith supported the bill at the end, even though he had worries about it, while Mr. Anderson did not vote.

One person opposing the government told the BBC that the vote tonight won’t be the last decision.

If the House of Lords decides to send back changes that make the bill less strong, some Conservative MPs might propose different changes to make the bill stronger.

The new law may face even more resistance in the House of Lords, where many members are worried about if it follows the rules of international law.

Crossbench peer Lord Carlile, a top lawyer and former independent reviewer of terrorism laws, said that although peers won’t stop the government, the Lords have a duty to safeguard the public from the government doing things that are not legally correct or principled.

He told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that we have seen in other countries the harm caused when governments think they are more important than the courts because of their political goals.

“This is a move towards a totalitarian government, which the United Kingdom usually disapproves of. ”

Mr Sunak will ask the other leaders to pass the bill quickly so that the policy can start.

However, some members of the conservative party who oppose the bill disagree and think that planes will still be stopped from flying due to legal challenges even after the bill is passed.

Chris Philp, who works for the government, said on BBC Breakfast that they want flights to start in the spring.

He downplayed disagreements in the party and said that almost everyone agreed that the bill was a good idea and a big step forward for the Conservative side.

On Wednesday, the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, said that he would give the money back to the UK if they didn’t send any asylum seekers to his country.

The UK has already given £240 million to the east African country and plans to give another £50 million.

A Rwandan government spokesperson said that they don’t have to give the money back, but they will think about returning it if the UK asks.

In Westminster, a person from Downing Street said they are not trying to change the Civil Service rules to say that emergency orders from the European Court of Human Rights should be ignored.

Earlier in the day, Minister Michael Tomlinson from the Home Office said the government was considering changing the rules, but later No 10 said they were not trying to change them.

The Cabinet Office said that civil servants should follow a minister’s decision to not listen to court rulings.