Rwanda flights in spring (whenever that may be)
RWANDA deportation flights will take off this spring, a minister insisted today as MPs and peers fought over amendments to the controversial legislation.
Treasury minister Laura Trott insisted that there were “many definitions of spring” when pressed about a timeline.
Rishi Sunak has made “stopping the boats” a key pledge of his leadership, and sees the Rwanda scheme as a vital deterrent to Channel crossings.
The Prime Minister has previously said he hopes the flights can be begin before the end of spring.
Asked if this was still the case, Ms Trott told Sky News: “We will be ready for flights to take off in the spring when the legislation passes.” She added: “I think there are lots of definitions of spring but we are hoping to get them up and running as quickly as possible.”
The Prime Minister’s Rwanda Bill was expected to “ping-pong” between the House of Lords and Commons today as MPs and peers fight over amendments to the controversial legislation. Peers gave the policy a fresh beating in the House of Lords yesterday and have pressed for revisions to the scheme, which were expected to be rejected by MPs later today.
A major sticking point between the Commons and the Lords is an amendment that would enable courts to overrule the presumption Rwanda is safe, if they see “credible evidence to the contrary”.
Crossbench peer Lord Anderson of Ipswich, who originally proposed the amendment, told BBC Radio 4: “We have no evidence that Rwanda is safe. All the evidence put before us demonstrates that at the moment it is not. The Supreme Court said in November it wasn’t safe.”
He added that while the two houses “are in the middle of ping-pong and a Bill can only go through when both houses agree”, any amendments which “delay or wreck” the legislation will not be insisted on by Lords.
It means the plan is likely to pass into law, two years after it was first proposed by former PM Boris Johnson.
The Bill and a treaty with Rwanda are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled asylum scheme after the Supreme Court ruled the plan was unlawful.
As well as compelling judges to regard Kigali as a safe place to send people, it would give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.
But the Lords have insisted on an amendment to restore the jurisdiction of domestic courts in relation to the safety of Rwanda.
Peers also renewed their demand for the Bill to have “due regard” for international and key domestic laws, including human rights and modern slavery.
In addition, they backed a requirement that Rwanda cannot be treated as a safe country until an independent monitoring body has verified that protections contained in the treaty remain in place.
An exemption from removal for those who worked with the UK military or government overseas, such as Afghan interpreters, secured renewed support.