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Watch: House of Lords debates Rwanda bill after Sunak wins key Commons vote

Watch as peers in the House of Lords debate Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda asylum policy on Monday, 22 January, after the prime minister won a key Commons vote last week.

The Safety of Rwanda Bill passed its third reading in the Commons unamended with a majority of 44.

Eleven Tories, including former home secretary Suella Braverman, voted against Mr Sunak’s immigration plan – despite other would-be rebels indicating they opposed the legislation before the vote.

Serious opposition is now expected as the bill moves to the House of Lords – prominent peer Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has said that the legislation represents “a step towards totalitarianism”.

Mr Sunak’s bill states that Rwanda must be treated as a “safe country” under UK law, which the government believes will allow deportation flights to the country to begin.

Lord Carlile told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve seen in various countries the damage that is done when governments use perceived and often ill-judged political imperatives to place themselves above the courts – this is a step towards totalitarianism and an attitude that the United Kingdom usually deprecates.”


Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk


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