Tory MPs urged to unite behind Rwanda flights
TORIES have been told to forget their differences and “unite” today in the battle to get deportation flights to Rwanda off the ground.
Senior Cabinet minister Mark Harper says he hopes “every Conservative MP” votes to ensure new legislation gets through Parliament speedily.
His rallying cry comes as the Rwanda Bill – designed to prevent legal challenges stopping the first flights taking off – returns to the Commons.
Ministers want to reverse changes made to the Bill in the Lords, with the goal of sending off the first wave of migrants this spring.
Transport Secretary Mr Harper said: “Every Conservative MP will have the opportunity to come together to vote down the amendments that were made in the House of Lords, backed by Labour peers to weaken the legislation to try to make sure it doesn’t work.
“And I’m sure all of my Parliamentary colleagues in Parliament will unite to vote those down to put the legislation back in the shape that it’s supposed to be.
“And then I hope we can get that legislation on the statute book quickly that will give us the powers then to make sure we can get those off flights off to Rwanda.”
The planned inaugural flight was grounded in June 2022 after an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.
Last November the scheme hit another setback when the Supreme
Court ruled it unlawful.
In recent weeks the Government has suffered 10 defeats in the Lords, with peers changing the Bill so courts could consider whether Rwanda is a safe country. Mr Harper said the Rwanda scheme is a “deterrent”.
There have been just over 3,400 crossings this year, roughly the same amount as at the same stage in 2023.
Illegal crossings fell from 45,774 in 2022 to 29,437 last year.
People smugglers use inflatable dinghies to get migrants to Britain with many picked up at sea and brought ashore to Dover.
Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “This plan, this proposal from the Government, is really a gimmick costing over half a billion pounds.
“It would be cheaper to put up the failed asylum seekers in the Paris Ritz for a number of years than this scheme.
“Obviously, the Government are going to get their legislation through, they’ll get flights taking off.
“But it’s something like less than 1% of the total number of asylum seekers, yet costing half a billion.”