Nigel Farage blasts Rwanda 'FARCE' as Tory rebels resign over migrant bill

Nigel Farage blasts Rwanda 'FARCE' as Tory rebels resign over migrant bill

WATCH NOW: Nigel Farage blasts Tory party after rebel resignations

GB News
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 16/01/2024

- 21:33

MPs voted 525 to 58 with a majority of 467 against former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick's amendment

Nigel Farage has questioned whether the Conservative Party has a future, after one of its most well-known MPs resigned as Deputy Chairman over the Rwanda Bill.

Ahead of the House of Commons vote on amendments to the controversial Rwanda Bill, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith submitted a joint letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.


On Monday night, the Conservative MPs had confirmed their intentions to rebel against Sunak's migrant policy, following a lengthy battle to get the legislation through.

In the joint statement, Anderson and Clarke-Smith said two pieces of legislation had "already been thwarted" by a system that "doesn't work" in favour of the British people.

Rishi Sunak

Nigel Farage hit out at Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives after losing amendment vote

GB News

They told the Prime Minister of their exit: "This is not because we are against the legislation, but because like everybody else we want it to work.

"This task is not an easy one, and we appreciate the fine balance that must be struck."

Reacting to the fallout of the vote, GB News host Nigel Farage branded the ordeal a "farce", highlighting the 600-day fight of the Tories to get the plan off the ground.

Nigel predicted that it was "unlikely" that Sunak and the Tory Government would ignore the European Court of Human Rights.

Nigel said of the chaos in the Commons tonight: "We're over 600 days into this Rwanda farce, 600 days where the government have promised us the people who crossed the English Channel illegally in dinghies would be sent to Rwanda.

"We've spent hundreds of millions of pounds, not a single flight has gone, not one person has gone.

"And as we go on through this internecine warfare within the Conservative Party, I wonder, legally, frankly, all the while we're signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, to various conventions with the United Nations, frankly, whether any of it is worth a row of beans."

Nigel was joined on his show by Immigration Lawyer Paul Turner, who shed light on the possibility of the Rwanda deportation flights ever taking off.

Nigel Farage and Paul Turner

Immigration Lawyer Paul Turner says the Rwanda Bill will be 'kicked into the long grass'

GB News

Turner told GB News: "It's been put to Sunak as to whether he would actually be as bold as to say he's going to ignore any Rule 39 injunctions. And he hasn't answered the question directly, just kicked it down the road.

"It's like he's frightened to say one thing or the other. As it stands at the moment, the amendments are probably the Conservatives' last best hope at actually getting any flights off the ground."

Nigel pressed Turner on whether he believes the legislation could be passed, and if the UK can beat the ECHR in the Rwanda battle.

Turner admitted: "I think there's a greater chance of Rishi Sunak being voted back as Prime Minister - that's likely to happen before anybody is removed to Rwanda.

"I don't think anyone is going to be removed to Rwanda. I think the next government are likely to kick this into the long grass where it belongs."

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