Peers have inflicted seven defeats against the Government’s Rwanda Bill this evening.
The first defeat saw peers vote by 271 to 228, a majority of 43, to press their demand that the legislation has “due regard” for domestic and international law. Peers also backed an amendment that states Rwanda is only safe for as long as the provisions of the UK’s treaty with that country are in place.
The House of Lords voted 285 to 230, a 55-vote majority, in favour of the crossbench amendment put forward by former top judge Lord Hope of Craighead.
It states that Rwanda “will be a safe country when the arrangements provided for in the Rwanda treaty have been fully implemented and for as long as they continue to be so”.
Peers have inflicted a fresh defeat against the Government’s Rwanda Bill voting by 271 to 228, a majority of 43, to press their demand that the legislation has “due regard” for domestic and international law
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Lord Hope argued that this ensures the law does not state Rwanda is safe before all necessary measures are in place, and that if it later becomes unsafe, the law will change to reflect that.
In a further setback for the Government, peers also backed a linked amendment regarding the monitoring of Rwanda’s safety. Peers voted 276 to 226, majority 50, in favour of the amendment which lays out how it is to be decided whether the provisions of the Rwanda treaty are in force.
The independent crossbench peer’s proposal states that the treaty will be considered implemented when a statement from the independent monitoring committee is laid before Parliament informing them that the objectives of the treaty have been secured.
It also states that the treaty will no longer be considered to be in force if Parliament decides, on advice from the monitoring committee, that the provisions are no longer being adhered to in practice.
The Government is braced for the legislation to be delayed for another month. With lawyers expected to challenge attempts to remove a cohort of migrants who have been identified this week, it means that the first flights of migrants might not take off for Kigali until May.
Further votes on voting to make Rwanda unsafe for some refugees, introducing age assessment tests on unaccompanied children, exempting victims of modern slavery and introducing caveats for those who assisted British troops also sailed through the upper chamber.
The legislation will soon return to the House of Commons where MPs will be able to vote to over-rule the peers for a second time, possibly early next week.
Whips privately believe there will be a third round of this 'ping pong' process before the Bill can become law. One senior source told GB News that the whips are planning for the final stages to be cleared in the first week after the end of MPs' Easter holiday, starting on Monday April 15.
It means that the Rwanda plan will have taken more than two years to become law since it was first unveiled by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April 2022.
The Bill returned to the Commons earlier this week, where MPs voted down 10 amendments introduced by the House of Lords.
The Prime Minister clashed with Sir Keir Starmer over the Rwanda plan at Prime Minister's Questions today, with the Labour leader saying that the deportation flights would only clear “one per cent” of the asylum backlog.
Sunak replied: “Since I became Prime Minister the number of small boat crossings are actually down by over a third.”
Earlier Home Secretary James Cleverly issued a last-minute plea to the House of Lords to pass the Rwanda Bill as soon as possible in order to “save lives”.
Cleverly urged the Upper House not to block the passage of the small boats legislation, telling the Daily Express: “It has always been illogical to argue the Rwanda scheme won’t work while trying everything and anything politically to ensure it can’t.
“The more this Bill progresses, the more worried Labour get that, as we’ve always said, it will work, and the more we’ve anticipated deliberate efforts from Labour to delay, disrupt or sabotage the scheme.
“We remain focused on not letting that happen, and hope their lordships recognise it’s time to let this Bill pass so we can continue to stop the boats, and save lives.”