Rishi Sunak has expressed his unwavering confidence in the effectiveness of his Rwanda Bill, as it heads for a crucial vote tonight. The Prime Minister is determined to tackle the issue of emergency deportations head-on.
During Prime Minister's Questions, Sunak assured MPs, "I have absolute conviction that the plan we've put in place will work because I believe it is important that we grip this problem."
He criticized Sir Keir Starmer, who opposes the Rwanda Bill, saying, "I know he's always been more interested in what lefty lawyers have to say. I've even got here the textbook that he authored for them – and it's called European Human Rights Law by Keir Starmer."
Starmer accused the Prime Minister of not having faith in "the Rwanda gimmick," asking, "When he sees his party tearing itself apart, hundreds of bald men scrapping over a single broken comb, doesn't he wish that he had the courage to stick to his guns?"
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has offered to refund Britain the millions paid to fund the deportation scheme if it doesn't yield the desired results. Speaking at the international Davos finance conference in Switzerland, Kagame stated, "If they don't come, we can return the money."
The PM faces a crucial test of his leadership tonight after 60 Tory MPs, including Boris Johnson, rebelled against his Rwanda migrant plan. Some senior Tories, such as Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, resigned before being sacked for supporting changes proposed by Sir Bill Cash and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
Jane Stevenson, a parliamentary private secretary in the Department for Business and Trade, also resigned to support the amendments.
The PM managed to defeat the rebels with the backing of Labour and other opposition parties who are fundamentally opposed to the Rwanda bill.
The real challenge, however, is expected later, as MPs continue to debate proposed changes to the legislation. If the Bill remains unamended and around 30 Tory MPs join opposition parties in voting against it at the third reading, it could be defeated.
As of now, very few Conservative MPs have explicitly committed to voting against the bill.
