U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a test of his authority and his nerve on Wednesday as he tries to subdue a Conservative Party rebellion and win parliamentary approval for his stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
Quick Read
- Critical Vote: U.K. lawmakers are set to vote on a bill enabling the deportation of unauthorized asylum-seekers to Rwanda, a policy blocked by the U.K. Supreme Court.
- Conservative Party Rebellion: Sunak faces a rebellion within his Conservative Party, with some members demanding tougher legislation.
- Resignations in Protest: Two Conservative Party deputy chairmen and a junior ministerial aide resigned from their positions over disagreements with the bill.
- Sunak’s Political Challenge: Sunak’s leadership and authority are being tested as he attempts to secure approval for the bill, which is central to his electoral strategy.
- Policy Rationale: Sunak argues that the deportation policy will deter dangerous Channel crossings and disrupt people-smuggling networks.
- Internal Party Conflict: The policy has divided the Conservative Party, with moderates considering it too extreme and hard-liners demanding stricter measures.
- Potential Defeat: About 30 Conservative lawmakers opposing the bill could join opposition votes to defeat the legislation.
- Rwanda Agreement: The U.K. has an agreement with Rwanda and has paid the country to rehouse asylum-seekers, but no transfers have occurred yet.
- Labour Party Criticism: Labour leader Keir Starmer criticized the Conservative Party’s internal conflict over the bill.
- Bill’s Prospects: The government maintains that the bill will pass, despite internal disagreements.
- Human Rights Concerns: The U.N. refugee agency and human rights groups have criticized the plan as inhumane and incompatible with international law.
- Legal Challenges: The U.K. Supreme Court previously ruled the Rwanda policy illegal, prompting a treaty and legislative response from the government.
- Next Steps: If the Commons pass the bill, it will proceed to the House of Lords, where it may face further opposition.
The Associated Press has the story:
UK PM Sunak tries to quell Conservative revolt over his Rwanda plan for migrants
Newslooks- LONDON (AP) —
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a test of his authority and his nerve on Wednesday as he tries to subdue a Conservative Party rebellion and win parliamentary approval for his stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
Lawmakers are due to vote on a bill that aims to overcome a U.K. Supreme Court block on the Rwanda plan, a day after some 60 members of Sunak’s governing Conservatives rebelled in an effort to make the legislation tougher. The dissent cost Sunak two party deputy chairmen, who quit their party positions in order to vote against the government on the amendments. A junior ministerial aide also resigned.
A similar rebellion on Wednesday would doom the Safety of Rwanda Bill, and potentially Sunak’s 15-month-old government. But as the voting hour approached, that looked less and less likely. Several critics of the bill indicated they would reluctantly vote for it.
“It’s this bill or no bill. It’s this bill or no chance,” lawmaker Bob Seely told colleagues before the vote.
With polls showing the Conservatives trailing far behind the Labour opposition in opinion polls, Sunak has made the controversial — and expensive — immigration policy central to his attempt to win an election this year.
He argues that deporting unauthorized asylum-seekers will deter people from making risky journeys across the English Channel and break the business model of people-smuggling gangs.
“We have a plan. It’s working,” Sunak said Wednesday in the House of Commons.
He needs to convince fellow Conservatives, as well as voters, that it’s true. But the liberal and law-and-order wings of the Conservatives — always uneasy allies — are at loggerheads over the Rwanda plan.
Moderates worry the policy is too extreme, concerns underscored when the United Nations’ refugee agency said this week the Rwanda plan “is not compatible with international refugee law.”
However, many on the party’s powerful right wing think the bill doesn’t go far enough in deterring migration to the U.K. Hard-liners’ attempts to toughen the bill by closing avenues of appeal for asylum-seekers failed Tuesday, and some of the Conservative rebels say they will oppose the legislation as a whole if it is not strengthened.
If about 30 Tory lawmakers vote against the bill, it could be enough, along with opposition votes, to kill the legislation.
But many Conservative lawmakers may hesitate to take the option of killing Sunak’s signature policy, which could trigger panicky moves to replace him or even spark a snap election. The government has to call a national election by the end of the year.
Sunak insists the bill goes as far as the government can because Rwanda will pull out of its agreement to rehouse asylum-seekers if the U.K. breaks international law.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the Conservative Party was tearing itself apart over the plan, like “hundreds of bald men scrapping over a single broken comb.”
Michael Tomlinson, the minister in charge of countering illegal immigration, said there was only an “inch of difference” between the government and its Conservative critics, and “actually we all want the same thing.”
He said he was confident the bill “is going to get through tonight.”
The Rwanda policy is key to Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” bringing unauthorized migrants to the U.K. across the English Channel from France. More than 29,000 people made the perilous journey in 2023, down from 42,000 the year before. Five people died last week while trying to launch a boat from northern France in the dark and winter cold.
London and Kigali made a deal almost two years ago under which migrants who reach Britain across the Channel would be sent to Rwanda, where they would stay permanently. Britain has paid Rwanda at least 240 million pounds ($305 million) under the agreement, but no one has yet been sent to the East African country.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame said it was “the U.K.’s problem, not Rwanda’s problem” that no asylum-seekers have been sent to the country.
“If they don’t come, we can return the money,” Kagame told the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Human rights groups have criticized the plan as inhumane and unworkable. After it was challenged in British courts, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in November that the policy was illegal because Rwanda isn’t a safe country for refugees.
In response to the court ruling, Britain and Rwanda signed a treaty pledging to strengthen protections for migrants. Sunak’s government argues that the treaty allows it to pass a law declaring Rwanda a safe destination.
If approved by Parliament, the law would allow the government to “disapply” sections of U.K. human rights law when it comes to Rwanda-related asylum claims and make it harder to challenge the deportations in court.
If the bill is passed by the House of Commons on Wednesday, it will go to the House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber, where it faces more opposition.
