UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced down
rebels in his ruling Conservative party by winning a knife-edge parliamentary
vote on his latest plans to send migrants to Rwanda.
Sunak, in power for just over a year,
has staked his political future on cutting record levels of regular and
irregular migration, and the issue is likely to feature prominently at the next
election.
In a tense vote after an afternoon of
debate, he saw off a Tory rebellion, winning the first substantive hearing of
the so-called Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill by 313 votes to
269.
But he faces making potentially more
concessions in the New Year to uncompromising right-wingers, who say the bill
is not tough enough.
Human Rights Watch UK director Yasmine
Ahmed called the result “a defeat for human decency and a hammer blow for the
rule of law”.
MP Mark Francois – a thorn in the side
of Theresa May’s government over her Brexit proposals – said the so-called “five
families” of hardline Tory factions opposed the bill as it stood.
“The prime minister has been telling
colleagues today he is prepared to entertain tightening the bill,” the arch
Brexiteer said before the vote.
“With that aim, at the committee stage
we will aim to table amendments which, we hope, if accepted, materially
improves and removes some of its weaknesses,” he said.
“Let’s pick this up again in January.”
‘Temporary Reprieve’
Political scientist Tim Bale, from Queen
Mary University of London, said Sunak’s “arm-twisting and promise-making in the
end did the trick”.
“But it’s a temporary reprieve rather
than a triumph for Rishi Sunak,” he said.
“There are plenty of hurdles he still
has to jump and, given the level of abstentions from Tory MPs who want to see
the bill made even more draconian than it is already, there’s absolutely no
guarantee they’ll be surmountable.
“And even if they are, this legislation
still has to get through the (Upper Chamber House of) Lords.”
Sunak called the bill “the toughest ever
anti-immigration law”, proposing that “the British people should decide who
gets to come to this country – not criminal gangs or foreign courts”.
“We will now work to make it law so that
we can get flights going to Rwanda and stop the boats,” he wrote on X.
The emergency bill, published just last
week, is Sunak’s answer to a unanimous Supreme Court ruling last month that
deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda was illegal under international law.
Earlier, Interior Minister James
Cleverly acknowledged that the plans were “novel” and “pushing at the edge of
the envelope” but addressed the court’s concerns.
Extreme action was needed to break the
business model of “evil people-smuggling gangs” preying on the vulnerable, he
told MPs.
“This is lawful, this is fair, this is
necessary… This is how we restore confidence in our immigration and take
control of our borders,” he said.
High Stakes
The bill is part of wider government
action to cut record levels of regular and irregular immigration that is likely
to be a key issue at next year’s election.
But by seeking to declare Rwanda safe –
despite concerns from human rights monitors – and removing legal challenges to
deportation orders, Sunak has triggered deep factional Tory infighting not seen
since wrangling over what form Brexit should take.
Opposing hardliners are more liberal
Tories who are concerned they could see the UK break international law if the
bill is amended down the line.
Sunak’s authority would have been
severely dented had he lost, and in a sign of the high stakes, UK Climate Minister
Graham Stuart was recalled from the COP28 summit in Dubai to vote.
The UK-Rwanda deportation plan was first
announced by Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson last year as a way of dealing
with increasing numbers of migrants crossing the Channel from France in small
boats.
AFP
