D-Day for Rishi Sunak TODAY as PM faces Commons revolt that could sink his Rwanda plan AND his Government: No10 battles to contain Tory civil war over migrant clampdown as grandees Priti Patel and Ben Wallace warn rebel MPs: ‘Don’t play with fire’

Rishi Sunak is today scrambling to contain a mass Tory revolt from the party’s Right-wing in the Commons which could sink both his Rwanda migrant crackdown and his Government.

The Prime Minister will hold last-ditch talks with rebel MPs at No10 this morning in a bid to quash the rebellion over emergency legislation designed to finally get deportation flights off the ground.

Would-be rebels have warned Mr Sunak that ‘major surgery’ is still required to fix the flagship legislation, with as many as 40 MPs prepared to either abstain or vote in the Commons today.

Swinging to Mr Sunak’s defence, Tory grandees from across the party, including Dame Priti Patel, Home Secretary James Cleverly, former Cabinet minister David Davis and former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace have warned Right-wing rebels that a revolt against the Rwanda scheme could wipe out the Conservative majority and collapse the Government.

With Labour and other opposition parties expected to vote against, a rebellion by just 28 Tories could be fatal. 

A Commons defeat today would mark the first time that a Government has failed to get legislation past a first reading since 1986, when Margaret Thatcher wanted to scrap restrictive Sunday trading laws. 

Writing in the Mail today, Dame Priti urged fellow Right-wingers to unite behind the legislation and take the fight to Labour. The former Home Secretary insisted: ‘The choice all MPs face today is a stark one. To oppose the Rwanda Bill, do nothing and continue to offer succour to the evil people-smuggling gangs putting lives at risk and putting pressures on our asylum system.

‘Or to vote in favour of the Bill, work with the government to improve it through considering amendments, and ensure the most robust measures to tackle illegal migration are finally implemented in conjunction with the Government of Rwanda.’

She added that now is the time for the Conservatives ‘to work collectively’ and to ‘do the right thing’ for the British public. 

Mr Wallace also warned rebels not to ‘wreck’ the Government by voting against the bill. Writing in the Telegraph, he told MPs not to ‘make the perfect (but unrealistic) the enemy of the good’. 

Rishi Sunak (pictured) was last night battling to prevent a revolt on the Tory Right from derailing the Rwanda scheme and potentially his government

The Prime Minister will hold last-ditch talks with rebel MPs this morning aimed at heading off defeat when the Commons votes tonight on his legislation, designed to finally get deportation flights off the ground (file image)

Home Secretary James Cleverly has also MPs to unite over the vote. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Cleverly said: ‘The protections in the treaty as well as the content of the Bill mean that MPs have no good reason not to express their collective view that Rwanda is safe by voting for the Bill. 

Priti Patel says MPs face a ‘stark choice’ over Rwanda Bill

Writing in the Mail today, Priti Patel said: ‘The choice all MPs face today is a stark one. To oppose the Rwanda Bill, do nothing and continue to offer succour to the evil people-smuggling gangs putting lives at risk and putting pressures on our asylum system.

‘Or to vote in favour of the Bill, work with the government to improve it through considering amendments, and ensure the most robust measures to tackle illegal migration are finally implemented in conjunction with the Government of Rwanda.’

She added that now is the time for the Conservative party ‘to work collectively’ and to ‘do the right thing’ for the British public. 

‘Meanwhile, those who say that the Bill doesn’t go far enough are, with all due respect, mistaken.’

One senior Tory said the vote was ‘looking tight’. At one point yesterday, Conservative whips considered the drastic move of pulling the vote to avoid a potential defeat.

‘Some of the rebels are sitting on big majorities and maybe don’t care, but others are not in that position,’ one source said. 

‘They should think very carefully about what the consequences might be if they vote this down.’ 

But government sources last night insisted the vote would go ahead after Tory moderates threw the PM a lifeline by backing him, despite ‘real concerns’ the plan could undermine Britain’s commitment to international law.

The architect of the original Rwanda scheme says it would send ‘a very powerful message to the public about our intent, credibility and ambition to tackle illegal migration if we calmly and collectively unite… to tackle illegal migration and the evil people smuggling gangs’.

Mr Davis predicted the legislation ‘will go through’ tonight. He told LBC Radio that fellow Eurosceptics were ‘playing with Brexit fire’, referring to fears the rebels could reopen wounds from fighting over the UK’s departure from the EU that the Tories thought had been healed years ago. 

He added: ‘I’m not sure quite why they’re doing it, unless they’re being encouraged by people who have other interests.’

Writing in the Mail today, former home secretary Dame Priti Patel (pictured) urges fellow Right-wingers to unite behind the legislation and take the fight to Labour

Mark Francois (left), chairman of the European Research Group (ERG), urged the PM to ‘pull the Bill’ because it had ‘so many holes in it’

MPs on the Right warned they could vote down the plans after they published a legal opinion which warned that the legislation was an ‘incomplete’ solution – and said ‘very significant amendments’ were needed to ensure the scheme does not get bogged down by further legal challenges. 

Ben Wallace urges rebels not to ‘wreck’ Government 

Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wrote in The Telegraph to warn rebels not to ‘wreck’ the Government by voting against the Rwanda Bill. 

He urged MPs not to ‘make the perfect (but unrealistic) the enemy of the good’.

Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group (ERG), urged the PM to ‘pull the Bill’ because it had ‘so many holes in it’. 

Sir Simon Clarke, from the Conservative Growth Group, said ‘there is no point frankly relitigating this issue unless it does work’.

Mr Sunak will make a final appeal for support at a breakfast meeting with MPs on the Tory Right today. 

A spokesman for the New Conservatives said the 40-strong group believes the Bill ‘needs major surgery or replacement and they will be making that plain in the morning to the PM at breakfast and over the next 24 hours’.

Two MPs claimed the rebels had the numbers to vote the legislation down if they didn’t get the answers they needed.

Meanwhile, the ERG will hold a final ‘plenary’ this afternoon to decide how it should vote. 

A source said: ‘We will be meeting immediately before the vote and then walking down to the chamber, stopping off for a bit of Dutch courage along the way if necessary.’ 

Ben Wallace has urged rebels not to ‘wreck’ Government by voting against the Rwanda Bill

The Safety of Rwanda Bill has been drawn up in response to last month’s Supreme Court ruling that sending Channel migrants to the east African state would be unlawful.

James Cleverly says MPs who vote against bill are ‘mistaken’ 

Home Secretary James Cleverly told The Daily Telegraph: ‘The protections in the treaty as well as the content of the Bill mean that MPs have no good reason not to express their collective view that Rwanda is safe by voting for the Bill. 

‘Meanwhile, those who say that the Bill doesn’t go far enough are, with all due respect, mistaken.’

The court found that Rwanda’s asylum system was potentially unsafe because there was a risk that migrants could be sent back to their home countries where they might be ill-treated.

Ministers signed a treaty with Rwanda last week stating that migrants sent from the UK will not be deported to their home countries. 

Today’s legislation would declare in law that Rwanda is safe, ruling out further court challenges to the principle of the scheme. It also excludes the plan from parts of the Human Rights Act.

But to the dismay of critics, individual migrants will still be able to lodge legal appeals.

An assessment by the ERG’s ‘star chamber’ of lawyers said the new law does not go ‘far enough to deliver the policy as intended’. 

It warned it would be ‘much easier’ than the Government thinks for individual migrants to frustrate their removal – and said individual claims should be banned. 

But Mr Sunak says strengthening the proposals by even ‘an inch’ would cause the Rwandan government to pull out, triggering the collapse of the scheme. 

The 100-strong One Nation group of moderate MPs said it would back the Government. Chairman Damian Green said: ‘The most important thing at this stage is to support the Bill despite our real concerns.’ 

Home Secretary James Cleverly has also urged MPs to unite over the vote. He says those who vote against the bill are ‘mistaken’

Former Cabinet minister David Davis (pictured) predicted the legislation ‘will go through’ tonight

It comes after the Home Office today published a summary of its official ‘legal position’ on the Rwanda plan in a sign of government jitters

David Davis predicts bill ‘will go through’ 

Former Cabinet minister David Davis predicted the legislation ‘will go through’ tonight. 

He told LBC Radio that fellow Eurosceptics were ‘playing with Brexit fire’, referring to fears the rebels could reopen wounds from fighting over the UK’s departure from the EU.

He added: ‘I’m not sure quite why they’re doing it, unless they’re being encouraged by people who have other interests.’

The five-page summary attempted to knock down the case for tougher measures advocated by Tory MPs including former home secretary Suella Braverman.

The document warns that blocking the ability of migrants to bring legal action would be ‘a breach of international law and alien to the UK’s constitutional tradition of liberty and justice’.

It adds that even in wartime, access to courts was maintained ‘in order that individuals can uphold their rights and freedoms’.

The document went on: ‘This is a novel and contentious policy, and the UK and Rwanda are the first countries in the world to enact it together.

‘There are risks inherent in such an innovative approach but there is a clear lawful basis on which a responsible government may proceed.’

But the summary said moves to block every court challenge ‘would mean that there would be no respectable argument that the Bill is compatible with international law’.

It added: ‘It would also go against Rwanda’s own explicit wishes that our partnership remains compliant with international law, and likely collapse the scheme.’

As a result, the Bill must allow very limited scope for migrants to bring legal challenges against being sent to Rwanda, based on ‘wholly exceptional individual circumstances’, it said.

The document predicted hardly any migrants would be able to lodge legal action under the ‘exceptionally narrow’ grounds for claims, such as very rare medical conditions.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘As the legal advice sets out, we think we have a tough and strong piece of legislation which will achieve our objectives.’

DAME PRITI PATEL: I understand the concerns, but we MUST back Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill

The choice all MPs face today is a stark one. To oppose the Rwanda Bill, do nothing and continue to offer succour to the evil people-smuggling gangs putting lives at risk and putting pressures on our asylum system.

Or to vote in favour of the Bill, work with the government to improve it through considering amendments, and ensure the most robust measures to tackle illegal migration are finally implemented in conjunction with the Government of Rwanda.

Having spent many years considering and working on this issue, I certainly recognise and respect the concerns and unease that some of my Conservative colleagues have about these new laws to overcome the legal challenges that have held back flights to Rwanda.

But now is the time for our party to work collectively to do all that needs to be done to secure the partnership and removals to Rwanda.

The public know that the Labour Party has no credible plan to address illegal migration – other than to open the doors and let more in – so they are looking to us to do the right thing. 

Now is the time for our party to work collectively to do all that needs to be done to secure the partnership and removals to Rwanda, says Dame Priti Patel (pictured)

The public know that the Labour Party has no credible plan to address illegal migration – other than to open the doors and let more in – so they are looking to us to do the right thing (file image)

It would send a very powerful message to the public about our intent, credibility and ambition to tackle illegal migration if we calmly and collectively unite to deliver a partnership which is one of many measures introduced to tackle illegal migration and the criminal people smugglers.

The UK’s economic and migration partnership with Rwanda was carefully designed with our friends in the Kigali government to demonstrate a new way to treat asylum seekers with compassion and supporting resettlement, while acting as a deterrent effect to the small-boat crossings that were putting lives at risk.

The partnership was one of many measures, new laws and operational activities I put in place to deal with illegal and dangerous entry into the UK by small boats. 

These included coordinated international law enforcement activities to arrest and prosecute the criminal gangs facilitating these journeys, tougher prison sentences for people smugglers, and reforms to the asylum application and appeal process to streamline them and prevent the system being abused.

While some have spent the past 20 months talking down Rwanda, we should welcome the fact that this is a country that already supports around 130,000 refugees through schemes established with the United Nations Human Rights Council, showing we are an active partner in addressing migration issues. We have also embraced economic, legal and political reforms over the last quarter of a century.

When I negotiated and agreed the partnership in April 2022, I knew it would face criticism and legal challenge and was prepared for it. Of course, the usual suspects – the opposition, activists and NGOs and lawyers – objected.

We saw campaigns waged against it, hostile comments in the media, and outrage from celebrities.

But while our opponents sought to talk it down and offer no solutions to the pressures caused by illegal migration, I was working closely with ministers in the Rwandan government to put robust arrangements and safeguards in place.

New legislation including the measures which the Government has now sought to reinforce with a treaty and the new laws being debated today will put the partnership on a stronger legal footing (pictured: Home Secretary James Cleverly in Rwanda) 

With all these measures agreed, it was deeply frustrating firstly to see the European Court of Human Rights interfere and block the first flights from taking off in June 2022 at the last minute, and then see our domestic legal processes lead to the decision of the Supreme Court last month to rule against the partnership with Rwanda.

But the Supreme Court judgment left the door open for the Government to consider options to resolve the issue, including operational measures on the ground to address the risk of ‘refoulement’ – sending asylum seekers to another country where they are likely to face ill-treatment – and demonstrate it would not materialise.

New legislation including the measures which the Government has now sought to reinforce with a treaty and the new laws being debated today will put the partnership on a stronger legal footing.

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