Last opportunity to fix Rwanda Bill, Jenrick tells PM
Former immigration minister warns plan will not work without backbench amendments
RISHI SUNAK’S immigration policy was savaged in the Commons yesterday as a former minister warned the PM that his Rwanda plan “will not work”.
Robert Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister in December, said that this week was the “last opportunity” to strengthen the Bill by accepting backbench rebel amendments.
Another Right-winger, former local government secretary Sir Simon Clarke, warned the Prime Minister that unless he accepted changes to the bill, the Tories would have no chance of winister ning the next election. Some 60 Conservatives defied Mr Sunak and voted for amendments to toughen up the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. Two Tory vice-chairmen, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarkesmith, resigned in order to vote against the Government, as did Kemi Badenoch’s aide Jane Stevenson.
Conservative backbenchers lined up to castigate Mr Sunak’s immigration policy, saying it would not be enough to stop the boats.
Mr Jenrick’s amendments to the Bill aim to severely limit individual asylum seekers’ ability to appeal against being put on a flight to Kigali. He said: “The current Bill does not work. The test of whether it works is not whether we can get a few symbolic flights off in the months ahead, with a small number of illegal migrants on them.
“The test is whether we can create the kind of sustainable deterrent that we set out to achieve.” The former minhe urged Mr Sunak to accept changes backed by right-wing Tory dissenters, as there was “no reason” why he could not unless the Government’s “goal posts have been shifted”. He said his amendment, alongside those tabled by veteran Tory Sir Bill Cash, “seek to address the evident flaws of the Bill”. “They represent the last opportunity for us to get this policy right,” he added.
Mr Jenrick claimed the Bill as it stands will not provide a strong enough deterrent for what he called the “scourge of mass migration”, and claimed it needed to be tougher in order to provide a “sustainable deterrent” to people boarding small boats to cross the English Channel.
In its current state, Mr Jenrick said the Bill left loopholes open which would allow individuals to claim Rwanda would not be safe for them specifically, even if it was deemed a safe country overall. He warned: “Of course as we have seen in the past, one person will mount a successful challenge, that will create a precedent. Time and again we will lose these cases in the courts. So the Bill in that respect is legally flawed.”
Sir Bill, MP for Stone, said his amendment would disapply international law in deportation cases, said: “We want the Bill to succeed, we want it to work, and we want to do what our voters want, but at present it does not.”
Sir Simon raised concerns about the Tories’ election prospects in the second half of this year, saying: “By that time, there will have, I’m afraid, been a contact between this Bill and the reality of our court system and I don’t think the outcome will be a pretty one. There will be time for it to have been tested and I fear there will be time for it to fail.”
said the patience of the public with illegal migration would soon be “exhausted”.
“We have marched the British public up this hill not once but twice and failed both times,” he said. “This is our third attempt. And of course the Government’s own estimate as we know is that as we stand today, the bill’s best chance can be rated at around 50/50. That is simply not adequate.”
Ms Stevenson, parliamentary private secretary to the Business Secretary, said she would back rebel amendments and told the Commons that Mr Sunak “should get a move on”.
“It is a crisis and my constituents certainly want to see results on this crisis,” she said. “So I will support these amendments, and I also want to put on record my whole-hearted thanks to the Prime Minister for his determination to sort this out.”
Labour MPS voted against all the toughening-up amendments. Shadow Home Office minister Stephen Kinnock said: “The Government’s Rwanda policy is unaffordable, unworkable and unlawful.”
Last night Danny Kruger, co chair of the New Conservatives Group of MPS, said he was “prepared” to vote down the Bill but added: “We are not at that stage yet. I really hope the scale of the vote in favour of the amendments will convince the Government that they really should adopt the amendments as their own.”
Mark Francois, chair of the European Research Group (ERG), said the “numbers speak for themselves” when asked if he would vote down the Bill at the Third Reading tonight.
“I hope very much that the Government will listen and as a result of this... that the Government will listen and take stock and that perhaps there will be some possibility of tightening the Bill... tomorrow,” he told Sky News.
One rebel Tory source said last night that the resignations of Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-smith were “a loss to the top of the party”. “They’re good people who represent their constituents,” the source said. “They’ve been brave and am sure they’ll continue to be brave to let their voters know where they stand on this issue.”
A spokesman for the New Conservatives group of MPS to which Mr Anderson is aligned said it was “politically damaging” to have lost him as deputy chair. “It’s deeply unfortunate, sad and politically unhelpful for the Government to lose one of its most prominent and visible representatives of the red wall, especially over an issue as important as migration, and especially in the aftermath of the Telegraph poll,” he said.
‘We want the Bill to succeed, we want it to work, but at present it does not’