The Rwanda bill cameback to the Commons as a new daily record is set for small boat crossings. Earlier, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appears in front of MPs on their return from the Easter break to discuss the UK’s involvement after the drone and missile attack by Iran.
Monday 15 April 2024 23:07, UK
A series of votes has taken place in the House of Commons on amendments to the legislation to rescue the embattled Rwanda scheme.
The bill passed the House of Commons earlier this year, but the House of Lords passed a series of amendments, which MPs voted this evening to approve or reject.
All the Lords amendments were rejected, and the bill now returns to them, where they could accept the bill without them, or insist on more amendments.
The amendments voted on by MPs this evening were:
Thank you for joining us on the Politics Hub for a busy day as MPs returned to Westminster after the Easter recess.
Here’s what happened:
Join us again from 6am for the very latest political news.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman has penned an op-ed in which she attempts to dismantle arguments against designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist group.
She says in a Telegraph article that the IRGC is “the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism” that is “responsible for plotting terrorist attacks, hostage-taking and indoctrination around the world, including in the UK”.
She writes that 70 MPs and peers from all parties are demanding proscription, which she argues would “cut the head off the snake here in the UK and [render] it much more difficult for these terrorist sponsors to operate on our streets, and in our communities”.
“I’ve heard the argument that the UK would lose access to Tehran by banning the IRGC, but this is weak.
“What good did this so-called ‘access’ do to stop or mitigate October 7? What good did it do to deter the drones and missiles fired on Israel this weekend? Or the attacks on people in the UK?”
That argument, Mrs Braverman says, is “Foreign Office-speak for: ‘We support the status quo and don’t see the need to change things, thank you very much’.”
She goes on: “Equally delusional is the claim that our sanctions regime is sufficient to deter the IRGC. This is naive when we know the IRGC circumvent sanctions.”
She says Rishi Sunak’s government “risks being left on the wrong side of history if it continues to stall on this important step”, adding: “It’s time we grew a backbone.”
Despite Rishi Sunak’s woes and battles with his pesky party and peers, the government still wins important votes in the Commons with hefty majorities of around 70.
In six votes on government moves to throw out Lords amendments to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, the majorities were 65, 71, 70, 70, 74 and 59.
So the bill now goes back to the House of Lords for another bout of ping pong – round 3, where the outcome of votes on further amendments is less predictable.
The word from the Lords while MPs were trooping through the lobbies in the Commons was that peers will vote another three or four times on Tuesday, setting up another round of ping pong on Wednesday.
One Lords insider told Sky News: “Some will fall into line tomorrow, clothes peg on the nose and all that, but if the crossbenchers hold firm it’s unlikely to be enough to defeat anything pressed to a vote.
“Round 3 on Wednesday is likely to be different, though, as the crossbenchers might then fade a bit and more Tories might be ready to start voting with the government. We’ll see.”
We will indeed. Opening the two-hour debate in the Commons, illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson was uncompromising – “The entire passage of the bill should prevail.”
“We simply cannot allow amendments that provide for loopholes which would perpetuate the current cycle of delays and late legal challenges to removal.”
Veteran Tory MP Sir Bill Cash, a serial rebel on Europe for more than 30 years, said the Lords amendments were “ridiculous” and pleaded: “Let’s get the House of Lords to calm down a bit.”
Good luck, as they say, with that.
So what happens after the bill, as we expect, finally receives Royal Assent and limps on to the statute book later this week?
The parliamentary battle over the bill will be over. But Mr Sunak’s battle to get planes in the air and illegal migrants deported to Rwanda almost certainly won’t be.
Cabinet minister Victoria Atkins more or less admitted on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News that the government still doesn’t appear to have found an airline to take the migrants to Africa.
In other words, the government may win votes in the Commons with hefty majorities, but many of the details of the Rwanda policy are still unclear and opponents are unlikely to give up their fight to keep the deportation flights grounded.
By Faye Brown, political reporter
Liz Truss has refused to rule out running to be Tory leader again, saying she has “unfinished business” with the Conservative party.
The country’s shortest serving prime minister also said the governor of the Bank of England should resign over his response to her catastrophic 2022 mini budget, and that opponents were attempting to “smear” her by blaming the event on the UK’s subsequent economic woes.
The Lib Dems branded her a “national embarrassment” following the comments, while Labour said the prospect of her returning to office “will send shivers down the spine of working people”.
Ms Truss’s tenure in Downing Street lasted just 49 days after her £45bn package of unfunded tax cuts triggered mass market turmoil.
The former prime minister has since doubled down on what she was trying to achieve, and is touring the media ahead of the publication of her book: Ten Years to Save the West.
Read the full story here:
The government has won the final vote of the evening and rejected a seventh Lords amendment.
This one would have prevented the deportation to Rwanda of those who have served with or for the UK’s armed forces.
The result is:
The government has won another vote in the Commons over Rwanda bill amendments.
This one is slightly more complex.
The House of Lords passed an amendment to the bill aiming to stop suspected victims of modern slavery, trafficked to the UK, from being deported to Rwanda.
The Commons rejected that last month – but the Lords insisted on the amendment and sent it back to the Commons.
If the Commons rejected it directly a second time, the entire bill would have failed, which obviously the government does not want.
Therefore, Home Secretary James Cleverly proposed another amendment mandating that he or the person in his job produce a report each year on how the bill is operating in relation to modern slavery laws.
MPs voted, and rejected the Lords amendment and therefore accepted the home secretary’s modification.
The result is:
A total of 534 people were detected crossing the English Chanel on Sunday – the highest number in a single day so far this year, according to Home Office figures.
The cumulative number of arrivals by small boats in 2024 now stands at a provisional total of 6,265.
This is 28% higher than the total at the equivalent point last year and 7% higher than the total at this stage in 2022.
Some 10 boats were detected on Sunday, which suggests an average of around 53 people per boat.
Downing Street said the numbers were “unacceptable” and demonstrated the need for the Rwanda deportation scheme to get off the ground.
Read more from our political reporter Faye Brown here:
Another vote, another government win.
MPs have rejected a Lords amendment to the Rwanda bill that would require local authorities to conduct age assessments for those being deported to Rwanda.
The result:
The government has just defeated another amendment passed by the House of Lords.
This amendment would have allowed individuals to appeal to the courts to stop their deportation to Rwanda on the basis of safety – something the government does not want to be possible.
And in good news for the PM, it has been rejected by the House of Commons.
The result is:
MPs have just voted on two amendments to the Rwanda legislation, proposed by the House of Lords.
The two being voted on are:
The government won the vote comfortably, and both amendments have been rejected.
The result of the vote is:
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