Rishi Sunak has urged the House of Lords to swiftly pass his controversial Rwanda deportation bill, claiming it is “the will of the people” and insisting the Conservative party is united on the issue despite this week’s mass rebellions.
In a hastily arranged Downing Street press conference after the bill passed its third reading in the Commons, the prime minister said it was now up to peers to fall in line. The legislation unilaterally declares Rwanda a safe country to which to deport asylum seekers.
“The treaty with Rwanda is signed and the legislation which deems Rwanda a safe country has been passed unamended in our elected chamber,” Sunak said in his opening remarks.
“There is now only one question: will the opposition in the appointed House of Lords try and frustrate the will of the people as expressed by the elected house? Or will they get on board and do the right thing? It’s as simple as that. We have a plan, and the plan is working.”
While the Lords are expected to pass the bill, it is likely to face significant opposition and delay, and could be returned to the Commons with amendments, given the scale of concerns about the plans and whether they breach international law.
This could wreak havoc with Sunak’s pledge to have the first planes leave for Rwanda in the spring, which could further enrage Tory MPs on the right of the party.
While just 11 Conservatives voted against the third reading on Wednesday evening, more than 60 rebelled over amendments during two days of debate, showing the scale of unrest among many backbenchers, and three frontbenchers resigned. After the vote, reports claimed several MPs had submitted letters of no confidence in Sunak.
But asked how he could implement a plan while his party was “taking lumps out of each other”, Sunak dismissed the idea of any division.
“The Conservative party last night demonstrated that they’re completely united and wanting to stop the boats. And this bill passed with an overwhelming majority in parliament,” he said.
In an on-message performance, in which he used the word “plan” 47 times in 25 minutes, Sunak reiterated his willingness to discount the views of the European court of human rights in pressing ahead with deportations, as set out in the bill.
“I’ve been crystal clear repeatedly that I won’t let a foreign court stop us from getting flights off the ground,” he said.
“Parliament has supported that. Also, the bill makes expressly clear that the domestic courts should respect that decision. And very simply, we would not have that clause, I would not have put that clause in the bill, if I was not prepared to use it.”
