Rwanda laws may be delayed until after Easter if Lords dig in to water them down

Laws to save the Rwanda deportation deal could be delayed until after Easter if peers dig in on attempts to water it down.

The Government is expected to overturn 10 Lords amendments to the Safety of Rwanda Bill, setting up another showdown over the legislation in the upper chamber tomorrow night.

If peers succeed once again in amending the Bill, i understands that the Government will wait until after the Easter recess before bringing it back before the Commons.

Parliament is in recess between 26 March and 15 April.

It is thought the Government will urge Tory peers who rarely take part in debates to attend and vote against the amendments tomorrow.

But even if this fails, Government sources insist that a delay will have no impact on Rishi Sunak’s aims to get deportation flights taking off “by Spring”, with the Lords expected to ultimately back down.

The Lords amendments included measures to ensure that the Bill is compliant with the rule of law, amid concerns about its powers to override domestic courts and ignore the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

But Home Office Minister Michael Tomlinson insisted there was nothing in the legislation which conflicts with international law.

“I don’t accept that the provisions of the Bill undermine the rule of law, and the Government takes its responsibilities and its international obligations incredibly seriously,” he told MPs in the House of Commons.

“And there’s nothing in the Bill that requires any act or omission which conflicts with our international obligations.”

Mr Tomlinson also argued against peers’ changes that would stop the legislation unilaterally declaring Rwanda as a “safe” country amid human rights concerns, by arguing that it has a “long and proud history” of integrating asylum seekers and refugees and that the Government had “published evidence” in support of the claim.

However, former Tory Attorney General Sir Jeremy Wright raised concerns that the Bill declared had declared in an “absolutist” and “eternalist” way that Rwanda is safe, adding that the Lords amendment in this area had some merit.

The Government is also expected to vote down moves to exempt Afghans who fought alongside British armed forces from deportation to Rwanda.

Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said that Labour would back all 10 amendments, arguing they made the Bill “marginally less absurd.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Neil Coyle claimed it was cheaper to fly six people to the edge of space than send one asylum seeker to Rwanda.

The scheme could cost taxpayers nearly £2m for each of the first 300 asylum seekers sent to Rwanda, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

Tickets for Virgin Galactic flights initially went on sale for around £158,000 each and last summer cost around £356,000 per person – putting the cost of six space tourists at £2.13m.

Mr Coyle said: “Is the minister aware that Virgin Galactic can send six people into space for less than this Government wants to spend sending one person to Rwanda?

“Is it not time to rethink this absurd policy and extortionate cost?”