Rishi Sunak is braced for in-fighting within his party over the Government's Rwanda legislation, which is set to be voted on by MPs next week.
MPs on the right of the party last night confirmed that they will be introducing amendments to toughen up the legislation, including clauses which prevent Strasbourg judges from grounding flights to Rwanda.
But former Cabinet minister Robert Buckland told GB News that the One Nation caucus of Tory MPs will not support them, dubbing the amendments "fundamentally unconservative".
The One Nation caucus is expected to put forward their own amendments to the legislation, which are expected to be incompatible with those put forward by the "five families".
Former Cabinet minister Robert Buckland dubbed the amendments "fundamentally unconservative"
PA
Speaking to GB News about the right-wing amendments, former Cabinet minister Robert Buckland said: "They are not acceptable. In fact they go way too far.
"They show no respect for the rule of law and are fundamentally unconservative.
"They will not be supported. And I can't think of many One Nation colleagues who would.
"The bill itself has gone too far anyway and it needs to be trimmed.
"We are certainly considering amendments, and I will put them forward later, not as a response to them but to make sure the bill is legally sound."
If passed, the right-wing amendments would mean ministers would be able to ignore automatically so-called last-minute “pyjama injunctions” by Strasbourg judges to stop planes deporting migrants to Rwanda.
MPs are due to debate the Rwanda Bill next week over two days on the floor of the House of Commons.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said this week that he welcomed “bright ideas” which would ensure that his Rwanda plan works to break the business model of the cross-Channel people traffickers.
The new measures - backed by former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and Sir Bill Cash with the support of an initial group of more than 30 MPs - are aimed at stopping judges on the European Court of Human Rights from frustrating ministers’ implementation of the Rwanda play.
Jenrick, who resigned as Immigration minister over weaknesses in the Government’s Rwanda bill, said: “The stakes for the country could not be higher.
“If we don’t fix this Bill the country will be consigned to more illegal crossings, more farcical migrant hotels and billions more of wasted taxpayers’ money in the years to come.
“The Bill as drafted simply will not work because it doesn’t end the merry-go-round of legal challenges that frustrate removals. I’ve seen the legal advice and operational plans where this was painfully apparent.
“That’s why colleagues and I have tabled a set of amendments that block small boat arrivals making individual claims and prevent Rule 39 pyjama injunctions from Strasbourg grounding planes.
“Parliament isn’t a parish council, it’s our sovereign legislative body. The power to solve this crisis is in our hands and the responsibility on our shoulders.
“If the Government truly want to stop the boats, it should adopt these amendments and use parliament’s power to deliver on the repeated promises we have made the public.”
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As well as stopping “pyjama injunctions” which would frustrate efforts to deport migrants, illegal migrants will also be blocked from bringing individual claims to suspend flights in all but a limited set of circumstances under the tweaks to the Bill.
The amendments are designed to close off the vast majority of routes to legal challenge by migrants while leaving a few exceptions such as when a migrant is medically unfit to fly - including pregnancy for instance - or when they are under 18.
The MPs say have received formal advice from leading constitutional lawyers which demonstrates that their amendments do not breach international law.