UK's Sunak faces key test over Rwanda migrant policy vote
Published: 03:12 PM,Dec 11,2023 | EDITED : 07:12 PM,Dec 11,2023
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (R) arrives at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, in west London, on December 11, 2023 to give evidence. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was finance minister at the time, is due to give evidence to the public inquiry into the UK government's handling of the crisis. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
LONDON: UK leader Rishi Sunak faces the riskiest week of his premiership, with lawmakers gathering on Monday to decide whether to back his flagship policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Factions of MPs from across Sunak's divided Conservatives have convened meetings to consider how to vote when the controversial legislation goes before parliament on Tuesday.
Sunak has put the plan at the heart of his pledge to stop irregular migration, making the issue a key battleground in a general election expected next year.
But opposition to the scheme from both right-wingers and centrists is widening schisms in the ruling party, putting Sunak's year-and-a-bit leadership in jeopardy.
The government announced a new bill last week after Supreme Court judges ruled in November that the deportation plan was illegal, as Rwanda was not a safe country.
The legislation would compel judges to treat Rwanda as safe and proposes giving UK ministers powers to disregard sections of human rights legislation.
The proposals have sparked fresh concerns from opposition parties, human rights groups and more moderate Tories who oppose any violations of international law by Britain.
However, right-wingers — including Robert Jenrick, who quit as immigration minister last week, and firebrand ex-home secretary Suella Braverman — say the legislation fails to go far enough.
Some on the right have called for Britain to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights and other international treaties, to stop courts blocking removals.
Up to 100 backbench MPs from five different groupings on the Conservatives' right wing, including the powerful European Research Group (ERG), which advocated a hardline Brexit.
The ERG called the bill was 'the toughest piece of migration legislation ever put forward by a UK government'.
But it said it only provided a 'partial and incomplete solution' to expected legal challenges and would require 'very significant amendments'.
The centrist One Nation group, which also has about 100 members, is expected to release its own statement later on Monday.
Tuesday is the first opportunity that MPs will have to vote on the legislation, in what is called a second reading.
Sunak has bet his pledge to 'stop the boats' crossing the Channel on the Rwanda scheme — which has been stuck in the courts since the first deportees were pulled off a flight at the last minute in June 2022, after an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights. — AFP
Factions of MPs from across Sunak's divided Conservatives have convened meetings to consider how to vote when the controversial legislation goes before parliament on Tuesday.
Sunak has put the plan at the heart of his pledge to stop irregular migration, making the issue a key battleground in a general election expected next year.
But opposition to the scheme from both right-wingers and centrists is widening schisms in the ruling party, putting Sunak's year-and-a-bit leadership in jeopardy.
The government announced a new bill last week after Supreme Court judges ruled in November that the deportation plan was illegal, as Rwanda was not a safe country.
The legislation would compel judges to treat Rwanda as safe and proposes giving UK ministers powers to disregard sections of human rights legislation.
The proposals have sparked fresh concerns from opposition parties, human rights groups and more moderate Tories who oppose any violations of international law by Britain.
However, right-wingers — including Robert Jenrick, who quit as immigration minister last week, and firebrand ex-home secretary Suella Braverman — say the legislation fails to go far enough.
Some on the right have called for Britain to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights and other international treaties, to stop courts blocking removals.
Up to 100 backbench MPs from five different groupings on the Conservatives' right wing, including the powerful European Research Group (ERG), which advocated a hardline Brexit.
The ERG called the bill was 'the toughest piece of migration legislation ever put forward by a UK government'.
But it said it only provided a 'partial and incomplete solution' to expected legal challenges and would require 'very significant amendments'.
The centrist One Nation group, which also has about 100 members, is expected to release its own statement later on Monday.
Tuesday is the first opportunity that MPs will have to vote on the legislation, in what is called a second reading.
Sunak has bet his pledge to 'stop the boats' crossing the Channel on the Rwanda scheme — which has been stuck in the courts since the first deportees were pulled off a flight at the last minute in June 2022, after an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights. — AFP