‘No more delays ...we will sit there and vote until it’s done’
‘It’s enormously frustrating. Everyone’s patience has run thin... mine certainly has’
RISHI Sunak warned yesterday he will force meddling Lords to sit all night to get his flagship Rwanda Bill finally through Parliament.
The Prime Minister admitted repeated delays in the bid to fly illegal migrants to Kigali had made everyone’s patience “run thin”. He voiced his frustrations as his Rwanda Bill returns to the House of Commons on Monday for a fourth round of “Parliamentary ping-pong”.
The PM also told of his anger over Labour’s repeated refusal to allow the Bill to clear the House of Lords.
In the latest sign the timeline is slipping yet again, No10 refused to commit to the first Rwanda flight taking off this spring.
Mr Sunak said yesterday: “The very simple thing here is that repeatedly everyone has tried to block us from getting this Bill through. Yet again, you saw it this week – Labour peers blocking us again.
“That’s enormously frustrating. Everyone’s patience with this has run thin – mine certainly has.
“So our intention now is to get this done on Monday. No more prevarication. No more delay.
“We are going to get this done on Monday and we will sit there and vote until it is done.” The PM added: “You’ve got a Conservative Government doing absolutely everything it can to pass the Bill so after that we can, as soon as practically possible, get flights to Rwanda and build that deterrent so that we can stop the boats.
“And you’ve got the Labour Party that is doing absolutely everything it can to delay and frustrate us in that aim.
“I think the British people can see that very clearly. But we are not deterred.”
Mr Sunak’s all-night sitting threat means every time peers try to block the Bill’s passage, it will be sent straight back to them to vote on again.
On Wednesday, the Lords rejected ministers’ pleas to allow a key part of the plan to end the Channel small boats crisis.
The Rwanda Bill compels judges to regard the east African country as safe and allows ministers to ignore emergency injunctions.
But peers say an independent monitoring group must first verify that protections in the treaty with Rwanda are in place. It would also effectively allow the Secretary of State to pull the plug on the scheme if promised safeguards were not maintained.
In a bid to protect Afghan interpreters who may arrive in the UK on small boats, peers also insist asylum seekers who worked for the UK military or Government overseas should be excluded from deportation flights. Government sources argue this could encourage migrants to claim they worked alongside British forces in conflict zones.
It is understood there are also significant concerns over the lack of paperwork being presented by some Afghans.
Some 14,423 have been granted indefinite leave to remain under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme.
The Government believes this is enough to help Afghans who served alongside British forces flee Taliban death squads. Mr Sunak’s spokesman said: “We have one of the most generous safe and legal routes for people in this category.
“The concern with the amendment is you would sponsor and encourage people to make the dangerous crossings... and the people-smuggling gangs we’re trying to stop.”
Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has warned that the Government has lost its “progress” on slashing Channel crossings.
Some 6,200 migrants have reached the UK on small boats this year compared with around 5,000 this time in 2023. Mr Jenrick said: “When the Rwanda Bill finally passes, what happens next? Will 100% of small boat arrivals be detained upon arrival?
“No. Illegal small boat arrivals will continue to be sent onwards to accommodation like hotels, free to abscond.
“Without the immediate detention upon arrival and swift removals that I proposed, a strong deterrent effect won’t be established, the boats will keep coming, and the national security emergency will worsen.”
He added: “Without a functional
third-country removals policy, there’s every reason to believe the numbers will continue to increase.
“Despite being given a huge amount of money, the bureaucratic French system has struggled to spend it. And with the [Paris] Olympics this summer, it is not inconceivable that French officers and gendarmerie will be dragged off the beaches of northern France to police the Games.”
Mr Jenrick said the only way to restore total control of UK borders was to leave the European Convention on Human
Rights. He added: “When the small boats continue in the summer and autumn, Parliament will rue the opportunity it gave up.
“The web of international frameworks and treaties like the ECHR, that have been stretched beyond recognition by activist judges, must finally be confronted.
“Some cling to the comfort blanket that the ECHR can be reformed. But, as I saw from my time as Immigration Minister, this is a delusion.”