Moderate Tories throw Sunak a lifeline on Rwanda Bill

The moderate One Nation wing of the Conservative Party will back UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s legislation on illegal immigration, as long as he fends off pressure from the party’s restive right wing to toughen proposals to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Damian Green, an MP and chairman of the roughly 100-strong One Nation caucus, emerged from a meeting of the group at 7pm on Monday to tell waiting journalists the government should “stick to its guns”.

Mr Green said the group would support the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill at a vote on Tuesday, strengthening Mr Sunak’s chances of steering it through its second reading. But, he said, the group’s continuing support was dependent on the prime minister resisting pressure to insert hardline clauses that might breach international law.

Members of the right wing of the party spent Monday threatening to pressure Number 10 into abandoning the legislation, which has split the party. Mr Sunak still risks losing the vote if hardliners rebel. He is desperate to push through the Rwanda legislation to enable Britain to deport illegal immigrants to the African country, fulfilling a key promise to voters.

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Mark Francois, a member of the hardline Tory European Research Group (ERG), called on the prime minister to completely rework the legislation, which he said had “too many holes”. A so-called “star chamber” of ERG-linked lawyers led by the Tory MP Bill Cash that examined the Bill concluded it provides only an “incomplete solution”, as it does not completely outlaw legal challenges by illegal immigrants to their deportation.

Mr Sunak’s office, meanwhile, released legal advice that said Britain would be in breach of international law if it outlawed such legal challenges. Number 10 said it would also be “alien to the UK’s constitutional traditions of liberty and justice”.

Further pressure was heaped upon Mr Sunak, who on Monday was distracted at the UK’s Covid-19 Inquiry, by other right-wing factions who want the Bill toughened. The Common Sense group of Tory MPs linked to right-wingers such as Tory vice-chairman Lee Anderson was also due to meet to hear from Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister and one-time Sunak ally who resigned last week because he didn’t believe the legislation was tough enough.

Mr Sunak’s options are complicated by the fact that he has a working majority of just 56 Commons votes to pass legislation that has cleaved his parliamentary party apart on a hot-button topic, immigration, that is important to Tory voters.

It is unclear whether the potential rebels on the right of the party can muster the 29 votes against that would be needed to defeat the Bill at its second reading on Tuesday night. Several have indicated that they may abstain instead, and table amendments after Christmas if the Bill limps through the next stage.

However, if 57 or more Tories were to abstain, then the Bill would also be defeated tomorrow. With his whips office in panic mode, Mr Sunak could also choose to pull the legislation entirely to avoid defeat, which would presage a major political embarrassment for him that could undermine his position as a leader.

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