One Nation Tories won’t block Rwanda Bill
Moderate Tory MPs are drawing up amendments to soften Rishi Sunak’s emergency Rwanda bill but are not seeking to block it, i understands.
The so-called One Nation group is plotting changes to tack on to the legislation when it is brought back to the Commons after Christmas.
Sources denied any of these would amount to “wrecking amendments”, designed to bring down the bill, if Mr Sunak were to make any concessions to right wing rebels.
The moderate Tory backbenchers have already stressed if Mr Sunak agreed to any demands from the right-wing faction in the party, the caucus’s support will be brought into doubt.
They are concerned about any changes that would risk the UK breaching the rule of law and its international obligations and want to ensure this is not compromised.
An MP in the caucus told i members would be working on possible amendments of their own over the Christmas period, but did not elaborate on what these would contain.
They dismissed any suggestion they would be working with Labour on this as “slightly wild speculation”.
Another source close to the One Nation group said it would “now be looking to see what is next”.
“We have made our position clear to the PM on amendments, but also realise the country has other priorities outside of just stopping the boats, and we will be doing more to pioneer one nation conservatism principles in the near future,” they said.
The Labour spokesman said he could not imagine a scenario which would see the party supporting an amendment softening the legislation given its opposition to the policy overall.
“It is difficult to see how that would work,” the spokesman said. “What is clear for us is that the Rwanda scheme is not something that we support or would go ahead with. We want to replace it with something else entirely. So I’m not sure what the sort of value of any sort of specific amendments would be.”
Mr Sunak faces threats from right-wing MPs who said they would vote the Safety of Rwanda Bill down in the new year if it not tightened up.
They are seeking to change the bill to prevent asylum seekers from being able to make appeals seeking to stall their deportation to Rwanda.
The emergency legislation, introduced after the Supreme Court ruled that the Rwanda proposal is unlawful as written, is designed to prevent migrants who arrive via unauthorised routes from legally challenging deportation to Rwanda.
The bill seeks to revive the stalled deportation plan by attempting to prohibit legal challenges based on the argument that Rwanda is unsafe.
It allows ministers to disapply the Human Rights Act but does not go as far as overriding the European Convention on Human Rights, something which Tory hardliners have urged is needed for the policy to be enacted.
Downing Street has indicated it will listen to changes suggested by MPs but has not committed to accepting amendments.
