Rishi Sunak backs off Spring timetable for Rwanda flights starting as he braces for New Year battle with Tory rebels and peers on emergency legislation
Rishi Sunak has shied away from repeating his pledge that migrant deportation flights to Rwanda will begin in the Spring.
The Prime Minister insisted he was ‘keen to crack on’ with his plans to send asylum seekers to the east African country but wouldn’t be drawn on the likely timetable.
He is facing a huge battle to get emergency legislation through the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the New Year.
In a bid to get around the Supreme Court’s block on the Rwanda scheme, which has soared in cost to £290million, Mr Sunak has introduced a Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.
But the legislation is currently being opposed by Tory rebels, while peers in the Lords have previously made life difficult for the Government when passing new asylum laws.
Downing Street will fear the Bill getting bogged down in both Houses of Parliament over the coming weeks as the PM attempts to finally get the Rwanda scheme up and running.
During a visit to a school in Finchley, north London, Rishi Sunak indicated he would be open to altering his Rwanda Bill
The Prime Minister’s new legislation is currently being opposed by Tory rebels in the House of Commons
A group of people, believed to be migrants, are packed tightly onto a small inflatable boat during an apparent attempt to cross the English Channel near Dover
Mr Sunak has stressed that flying asylum seekers to Rwanda will prove a deterrent to potential migrants thinking of crossing the Channel in small vessels.
In an interview with the Spectator, the PM defended making a promise to ‘stop the boats’ at the beginning of this year and denied it was a mistake to use the phrase.
‘No, I think it’s a straighforward phrase,’ he told the magazine. ‘Everyone knows what I wanted to do.
‘I do ultimately want to stop the boats, because there isn’t an acceptable amount of illegal migration.’
But Mr Sunak refused to be drawn on how soon migrant flights to Rwanda would take off if he can get his new legislation through Parliament.
‘I’m keen to crack on with it,’ is all he said when asked about timings.
Last month, immediately after the Supreme Court ruled the Rwanda scheme was unlawful, Mr Sunak pledged that deportation flights would begin ‘in the Spring of next year’.
The PM this week saw the Rwanda Bill have its Second Reading approved in the Commons with a 44-strong majority among MPs.
But a group of 29 Tory rebels abstained from the vote in opposition to the legislation.
Many on the Conservative right-wing want Mr Sunak to toughen the Bill during the rest of its parliamentary stages.
They are concerned that asylum seekers will still be able to derail the Rwanda scheme through individual legal appeals against deportation.
But Tory moderates have warned they could withdraw their support for the legislation if any amendments to it put at risk Britain’s international obligations.
During a visit to a school in Finchley, north London, today, Mr Sunak indicated he would be open to altering the Bill.
But he repeated his warning that Rwanda could pull out of the asylum deal with Britain if legislation passed by Parliament risks breaching international law.
The PM told broadcasters: ‘I’ve been very consistently clear, as have all ministers.
‘If there are ways that the legislation can be improved, to be made even more effective – with a respectable legal argument and maintaining the participation of the Rwandans in the scheme – of course we would be open to that, who wouldn’t be?’
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