Nigel Farage demands unelected Lords be SACKED after anti-Rwanda peer vows to 'protect democracy from itself’

Nigel Farage demands unelected Lords be SACKED after anti-Rwanda peer vows to 'protect democracy from itself’
Millie Cooke

By Millie Cooke


Published: 23/01/2024

- 10:10

Updated: 23/01/2024

- 14:17

The House of Lords voted to delay the ratification of the Rwanda treaty by 214 votes to 171


Nigel Farage has demanded the unelected House of Lords be sacked after peers voted to delay a key section of the Rwanda plan last night.

The Lords sparked fury after an anti-Rwanda peer claimed the job of the unelected House is to "protect democracy from itself".


They voted to delay the ratification of the Rwanda treaty by 214 votes to 171.

Lord Carlile, a crossbench Peer, said: "I have been offended by criticism - some of it aimed at me and others who spoke out on the Rwanda subject - that we are ‘unelected nobodies’ who are simply put here to obey the rule of the democratically elected house.

"My Lords, that is not our role. One of our roles here is to protect democracy - sometimes to protect democracy from itself.

“To ensure that members of the other place, and indeed members of our house, do not overstep the mark, that they do not put is in conflict with the hallowed principle of the separation of powers".

Lord Kerr joined Lord Carlile in opposing the plan, saying he wanted to put on record his "profound objection to an arrangement that is incompatible with our responsibilities under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol and of course the European Convention on Human Rights”.

He described the plan to send migrants to Rwanda as “unprecedented and unconscionable”.

After the debate, Farage wrote on X: "We must sack all current members of the House of Lords. It is beyond parody."

Giving a press conference last week, Sunak issued a warning to the House of Lords over his Rwanda plan, saying they "must pass this bill".

He the House of Lords to “get on board and do the right thing” in supporting the bill, warning peers not to “frustrate the will of the people”.

The PM vowed to deliver on the Rwanda plan, saying: "It is past time to start the flights".

He said: “There is now only one question.

“Will the opposition in the appointed House of Lords try and frustrate the will of the people as expressed by the elected House, or will they get on board and do the right thing?

“It’s as simple as that.”

The Prime Minister insisted that last week's vote, which saw his bill pass its third reading by 320 votes to 276, showed the Conservative Party was “completely united”.

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