Prime minister Rishi Sunak said flights to Rwanda have been booked and will take off by July, “no ifs, no buts” at a Downing Street news conference ahead of the Rwanda bill returning to parliament later today.
Mr Sunak told the surprise conference the first flight carrying asylum seekers would leave for Rwanda in 10-12 weeks, despite the problems he has faced passing it into law.
Peers have repeatedly blocked the legislation with a series of amendments, stretching debate on the “emergency legislation” over more than four months and delaying flights taking asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The bill is intended to overcome the objections of the Supreme Court by forcing judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country for asylum seekers and allowing ministers to ignore emergency injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights.
MPs are expected to vote to overturn those changes before sending the bill back to the House of Lords, where some peers may attempt to insist on their amendments again.
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Matt Mathers
22 April 2024 16:00
Tory MP Sir Robert Buckland, a former government minister, explained why he was backing the Afghan amendment to the Rwanda bill, Holly Bancroft reports.
Referring to members of the Afghan special forces, who fought alongside UK soldiers and who are currently having their UK relocation applications reviewed, he said: “We don’t want to end up with people, who are having their applications reviewed by the MoD, who are stuck in Pakistan, we don’t want them to end up in a position where they’re being carted off in this scheme,” he said.
“It wasn’t designed for this sort of category [of people]. Despite all the progress we’ve made on bringing Afghans to safety in the UK, we don’t want to end up with unintended consequences where people who’ve risked their lives for our safety are then put into this scheme.”
Sir Robert is also backing the other Lords’ amendment, which would make sure the monitoring committee verifies Rwanda as safe before asylum seekers are sent there. It was also make sure that the committee can tell MPs when Rwanda is no longer a safe country.
Sir Robert said neither were “wrecking amendments” but were rather about getting the detail of the bill right.
Once the Rwanda bill is passed, Sir Robert told The Independent that there will “inevitably be individual legal challenges”. However he felt that the likelihood of an intervention from the ECHR “has probably receded” due to new guidelines issued to the Strasbourg judges, which have raised the threshold for issuing injunctions.
Matt Mathers
22 April 2024 15:47
Emily Maitlis to lead Channel 4’s general election coverage
Emily Maitlis will lead Channel 4’s coverage of the general election, the broadcaster has announced.
The News Agents journalist, formerly of the BBC, said she was “delighted” to “work with such an incredible cast of people.
Matt Mathers
22 April 2024 15:47
“I cannot wait.”
She will present the election special alongside Channel 4 News presenters Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Cathy Newman and others.
Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, who present the Rest Is Politics podcast, will also appear throughout the night.
Matt Mathers22 April 2024 15:37
