Rwanda bill: legislation passes third reading as rightwing rebellion recedes – UK politics live

Pippa Crerar

Rishi Sunak has survived a damaging row over his flagship Rwanda bill after a Conservative rebellion melted away as dozens of rightwing MPs baulked at further undermining the prime minister’s authority.

After a crucial 11th hour meeting of more than 45 Tory rebels, the group’s leaders concluded that defeating the bill by voting alongside Labour during an election year could risk collapsing the government.

Just 11 Conservative hardliners , including the former home secretary Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, voted against the legislation, which passed by 320 votes to 276, a majority of 44.

There was relief in Downing Street that after days of chaos and infighting at Westminster, during which dozens of Tories rebelled to support amendments to try to toughen up the legislation, the bill has eventually passed its final Commons hurdle.

Sunak now faces further bruising battles with peers who are already threatening to amend the Rwanda deportation plan in the House of Lords to make sure that it complies with international law.

Read the full report here.

Peter Walker

The good news for Rishi Sunak is that, as widely predicted, his Rwanda bill passed the Commons with relative ease. But in keeping with the curse faced by so many recent Conservative prime ministers, getting what he wants could be just the start of his troubles.

There is one very important point to make first. However tricky things may get implementing the measure, if Sunak had become the first prime minister since 1977 to lose a bill on third reading it would have been disastrous, even politically terminal for him. So he will be pleased.

This is, of course, is all relative. An authoritative prime minister in a strong position would not expect to see 60 MPs rebel to try to amend a flagship policy, as happened on Tuesday, let alone have to wait for the same MPs to largely back down to guarantee the bill’s progress the following day.

As has been the case throughout the genesis of the Rwanda deportation scheme, one bequeathed to a reportedly sceptical Sunak by Boris Johnson, via Liz Truss, it is now hard to say whether he will face more problems being able to implement the scheme or having it blocked again.

He could see the Lords try to derail the bill, or at least delay it, with the latter seen as the more likely option, even among potential rebels in the upper house. If it is passed, the unilateral declaration that Rwanda is a safe country to which asylum seekers can be deported will then almost certainly face a renewed judicial test.

This route would allow Sunak and his ministers to hit out at “lefty lawyers” and “unelected peers” – but actual voters, already deeply sceptical of the Rwanda plan, might focus instead on the potentially broken promise to have the first planes leave by spring.

And if the Lords does back down, and the bill proves legally watertight? That leaves Sunak having to enact a policy that could appear notably more inhumane once it involves real people who have fled real trauma, rather than a mass of unnamed “illegal migrants”.

Most crucially, Sunak has bet almost all his remaining political credibility on a rush of flights to Rwanda having an immediate and noticeable impact on the flow of unofficial small boat crossings over the Channel, something few outsiders believe is realistic.

Read the full analysis here.

The third reading of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill passed by 320 votes to 276, a majority of 44.

Conservative former minister Dr Liam Fox has been accused of using a “misogynistic term” when he described an SNP MP’s speech as hysterical.

Dr Liam Fox faced criticism for the remark in the Commons, which he made as he told MPs: “It is very clear from the debate and the last couple of days that it is this side and this side only that understands the concept of deterrence when it comes to…”

SNP home affairs spokeswoman Alison Thewliss could be heard to shout as Dr Fox spoke, and the senior Conservative interrupted his opening words to respond: “She has had her hysterical say. I will have mine.”

The SNP frontbencher shouted back: “Misogynist!”

Ms Thewliss had claimed in her speech that the Government “has become the criminal gang, breaking international law, moving vulnerable people across the world without legal process, no right of appeal, no concern for the safety or human rights of asylum seekers, to a country they do not know, involving money and involving profit”.

Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney, later criticised Dr Fox, telling MPs:

I also am shocked to hear a member calling another member – a female member – hysterical. It is a classic callout of misogynistic term and I am shocked to hear it.

The Commons has divided to vote on a motion to approve the Safety of Rwanda Bill.

More on the vote on Jenrick’s Amendment 23.

According to the division list, 61 Conservative MPs backed it, making it the largest Tory rebellion of the Rwanda Bill so far.

Yesterday, 60 Tories backed Sir Bill Cash’s amendment.