Small boats bill WON’T be watered down again, immigration minister tells pesky Peers

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PICTURE BY GARY STONE..11/7/2023. MIGRANTS ABOARD BOERDER FORCE BOAT TYPHOON WHO HAVE BEEN RESCUED IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL AND BROUGHT INTO THE PORT OF DOVER, KENT.

RISHI Sunak’s small boats bill WON’T be watered down any more, the immigration minister vowed today.

Robert Jenrick told pesky Peers trying to change it again that he was not willing to accept any more changes to it.

Migrants rescued by Border Force boat earlier this week in the Channel

It came as former Labour MP, Simon Danczuk called for a referendum over Rwanda in a bid to push it past leftie judges and peers.

The ex-MP told TalkTV: “It’s quite clear the public want us to be in charge of our borders, it should be put to them in a referendum.”

MPs and Peers are locked in a battle of ping pong over the new stop the boats law, which is expected to come into force in the autumn.

More than 13,000 small boat migrants have come to Britain so far this year.

Ministers are desperate to finish it off before everyone goes home for the summer break.

Last night Lords slapped several more changes back on to the bill – just days after MPs voted to take them off again.

But today Mr Jenrick insisted he has no plans to compromise any further – and ministers have already made several concessions in a bid to appease grumbling Lords.

He accused opposition parties of acting immaturely by failing to come up with their own ideas.

And he said they aren’t “serious or grown up” by trying to tackle problem.

Mr Jenrick told the BBC on whether he was planning to cave in again: “I don’t expect to, no. That’s not our intention.”

He cited Tory grandee Lord Ken Clarke, former home secretary, who had come around to the Rwanda scheme because he felt there was no other option to try and solve the problem.

Mr Jenrick added: “The key thing that came out of the debates in the House of Lords is, it’s incumbent on those who choose to criticise our plans to provide an alternative.

“This is not a serious or grown up way to conduct a debate to say, well, we have concerns about Rwanda, we don’t like the compliance environment, we don’t want this… but not to come up with an alternative.”

Yesterday it was revealed that the plans will go to Britain’s top court for a final battle over whether the policy is legal or not.

The Supreme Court will hear both sides of the case before making a decision which could ground flights forever – or see them take off within weeks.

Robert Jenrick insisted he did not intend to make more changes to the law