Rishi Sunak’s push to pass an emergency Rwanda bill has been dealt a fresh blow as a group of right-wing Tory MPs has concluded the legislation is not fit for purpose.
Sir Bill Cash – who has chaired a “star chamber” legal examination being waited on by hardliners – has said the bill is not “sufficiently watertight” to get deportation flights off the ground.
It comes as it emerged that foreign secretary David Cameron is helping in the battle to keep Tory MPs on side ahead of a crucial vote in parliament on Tuesday.
Sacked home secretary Suella Braverman piled even more pressure on Mr Sunak – attacking his “rather strange” claim that a tougher bill would have caused the deal with Rwanda to collapse.
Suggesting the PM was not telling the truth, she told the Sunday Telegraph: “I’ve been to Rwanda several times and I have spoken to the Rwandan government a lot. It never once raised any kind of concerns like this.”
And Robert Jenrick accused Mr Sunak of making a “political choice” to bring forward a Rwanda bill “which doesn’t do the job” – making clear that “one or two symbolic flights” was not good enough.
The senior Tory rebel, who quit as immigration minister this week, said he would not back the legislation in parliament. “Absolutely everyone who comes across in a small boat will put in a legal claim,” he told the BBC.
Suella Braverman claims Rwandan government did not threaten to pull out of scheme
Conservatives from both the right and the left of the party are considering whether to back, oppose or abstain on the legisalation in a crunch vote on Tuesday. Labour will whip to vote against the bill, meaning a rebellion by just 28 Tories could deliver a humiliating defeat.
Sir Bill has chaired a so-called “star chamber” of lawyers carrying out an examination for the European Research Group of Tory MPs, but others on the right in the New Conservatives and the Common Sense Group are also awaiting the formal findings – expected on Monday.
The veteran Tory wrote in the Telegraph that they had been considering whether the “wording is sufficiently watertight to meet the government’s policy objectives”. Sir Bill added: “At present it does not.”
Cabinet minister Michael Gove defended the Rwanda legislation as “tough and robust” – but claimed on Sky News that the government would “take seriously the views” to the views of Sir Bill Cash and others on the Tory right.
Despite his insistence that No 10 would listen to rebels, Mr Gove clashed with Mr Jenrick on Sunday – rejecting the right-winger’s claim that “everyone” crossing on a small boat will be able to make a legal claim. “That’s not correct,” he said on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Michael Gove says Sunak ‘not contimplating early election’
“The only way that an individual can challenge deportation is if there is an immediate risk of serious and irreversible harm,” he said – insisting the number of appeals would be “vanishingly small”.
Mr Gove also insisted that Mr Sunak’s government is “not contemplating” holding an early general election if the Rwanda bill is voted down. Asked if it was an option, the senior Sunak ally said: “No, we’re not contemplating that.”
Lord Cameron, and several other ministers, are said to have been helping in the No 10 push to persuade Tory rebels to back the bill. The new foreign secretary spoke to Sir Bill for 45 minutes on Friday afternoon, according to the Sunday Times.
Backing Mr Jenrick’s claim that the bill leaves open legal challenges by individual asylum seekers, Ms Braverman said: “There will be individual claims brought by every person who is put on the first flight to Rwanda.”
She also claimed the bill it leaves the government open to injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which helped block last year’s planned Rwanda flight. “As it stands Rule 39 [injunctions] will block flights,” Ms Braverman said.
David Cameron (l) has been working to persuade Tory MPs to back the bill
Moderate Tories from the One Nation group are set to deliver their verdict on Moinday, but remain seriously concerned about the idea ministers will tell the courts they must find Rwanda is “safe”.
Damian Green, chair of the group, said: “The powers of ministers to take decisions on their own on individual cases … and also the aspect of legislation asserting that Rwanda is safe. Those are two concerns we have.”
Some on the right want to go further in disapplying the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). But The Independent understands that rebels from both sides are expected to wait until a later stage to seek to amend Mr Sunak’s plans, rather than hand him a humiliating defeat on Tuesday.
A group of unnamed Tory MPs have told the Mail on Sunday that they would like to get rid of Mr Sunak – with some even keen to bring back Boris Johnson as leader.
Dubbed the “pasta plotters”, a small group of anti-Sunak MPs and strategists were said to have met an Italian restaurant to plan “an advent calendar of s***” for the current Tory leader over the Rwanda issue this December.
“Whatever you feel about him, one thing no one can question is [Mr Johnson]’s effectiveness as a campaigner,” one red wall MP told the newspaper. But with Mr Johnson out of parliament, the so-called pasta plotters are said to be uncertain who could realistically replace Mr Sunak.
Mr Green – chair of the One Nation wing – offered a warning to any right-wing rebels pouncing upon the Rwanda issue as a way to get rid of Mr Sunak.
“Anyone who thinks that what the Conservative party or the country needs is a change of prime minister is either mad or malicious or both,” he told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Mr Green added: “It is a very, very small number doing that [plotting to oust Mr Sunak].”
Asked on the BBC if he would run for the Tory leadership if Mr Sunak was ousted, Mr Jenrick insisted he was “not interested”. But he warned: “If we do not fix this challenge … then we will face the red-hot fury of the public.”
Sir Keir will use a speech on Tuesday, the day of the crucial Rwanda vote, to argue that the Tories are “fighting like rats in a sack”.
Mr Sunak said: “This week, Labour needs for once to rise above political games … They need to act in the national interest.” But Labour accused the Tories of “begging for our votes” to pass the legislation.
