Rishi Sunak is trying hard to get support for his Rwanda bill from conservative MPs before an important vote.
The prime minister had breakfast with some people who might rebel, at his official residence. He is trying to get them to support the new law.
The bill wants to start the government’s plan to send some people seeking asylum to a country in East Africa.
Some people in the party’s conservative group are saying that we need a stricter law to make sure the program is successful.
At the same time, Conservative Members of Parliament from the more open-minded part of the party say they will back it as it is now, but have cautioned against making changes later because they could break international law.
This means that Mr. Sunak is having a big problem with his MPs, who might embarrass the PM over one of his most important plans.
The government has made new laws to bring back the Rwanda scheme, after the Supreme Court said it was not allowed last month because it might cause human rights problems.
The new law wants to officially say that Rwanda is a safe place to send people who are seeking asylum in the UK. It also aims to avoid stopping flights to Rwanda because of legal issues.
But some conservative members of Parliament who lean to the right are worried that the new rules may not be strong enough to stop more legal challenges from stopping deportations.
At about 7:00 PM, members of Parliament will be asked if they think the bill should move forward to the next step in Parliament.
Labour and other parties are against the bill. If 29 Conservatives also vote against it, the bill could be defeated. This hasn’t happened since 1986.
Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, said that if his party wins the next election, he will cancel the plan to give £290m to Rwanda. He thinks that the money would be better used to support the police in the UK instead.
Tory groups have a meeting.
Before the vote, many important members of the Conservative party, like former defense secretary Ben Wallace and attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, have asked MPs to come together. They warned that if they don’t, it will be very bad for the party before the next election.
Sir Geoffrey told the media Newsnight that if we continue like this, we will definitely lose the support of millions of people whose votes we need.
Mr Sunak met with the New Conservatives group on Tuesday morning. They said the bill needs “big changes or a new version. ”
After a meeting on Monday, some lawmakers in the group said they were trying to decide whether to not vote at all or to vote against the bill.
The European Research Group, a group on the party’s right, thinks that big changes are needed to stop legal challenges to deporting people to Rwanda.
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Video: Mark Francois and David Jones from the European Research Group ask the government to get rid of the bill.
Agreeing with the MPs on the right of the party could make centrist Tories stop supporting us.
The One Nation group, which has more than 100 Conservative MPs, said it was suggesting its members vote for the bill for now, but said it would not support any changes in the future that would make the UK government break the law or its international promises.
Tory critics might choose to let the bill pass for now, maybe by not voting, hoping to get some changes from the government later on.
Some Members of Parliament who were thinking about supporting the government on Tuesday now seem less hopeful about being able to change the bill later on.
“One Tory MP told the media that we don’t have enough votes to change it next year. ” “It’s happening now or it might not happen at all. ”
If the vote goes forward and Mr. Sunak loses, there might be an election to choose a new leader for him, and maybe even a national election.
People close to the Prime Minister admit that it will be a close vote, but they believe they can win and are determined to not give up.
Those who support making the Rwanda bill stronger say it might still allow people to challenge it in court. They could say that being sent to Rwanda could put them in danger.
The government wanted to convince critics, so they shared a summary of their legal advice on the plan.
The suggestion is that it will be very difficult for people to argue against being deported under the new law, and not being allowed to appeal would go against international laws.
It talks about pregnant people who shouldn’t fly and people with really rare sickness that can’t be treated in Rwanda.
Critics say that even if only a few of these claims are successful, they will still create a backlog in the courts and cause delays in deportations.
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