As expected, the Commons has backed the Safety of Rwanda Bill at third reading by 320 votes to 276. Just 11 Tory MPs voted against, with the full list below. This afternoon, the noise from the rebels became rather more muffled, with the ‘five families’ of right-wing backbenchers announcing that the majority would be supporting it. The final attempt from former immigration minister Robert Jenrick to toughen the Bill up failed, which was expected too, but 61 Tory MPs did still rebel on his amendment, which aimed to block so-called ‘pyjama injunctions’ from European judges.
Labour’s Stella Creasy clashed with a number of Tories, including Suella Braverman and Danny Kruger
In the debate, James Cleverly took care to reassure both sides that the Bill was what they were after. He told the Tory MP Tobias Ellwood that, ‘as drafted, as we intend this Bill to progress, it will comply completely with international law’. He immediately received a complaint from backbencher Bill Cash about this, who wanted more. Cash later said he would be voting against the Bill, saying ‘I don’t believe – to use the Home Secretary’s own words – that this is the toughest immigration legislation that we could produce, nor do I think we’ve done whatever it takes.’
From the rebel side, there wasn’t that much noise, because there were hardly any rebels left. Danny Kruger congratulated the whips on enjoying more success with his colleagues than he had, and said he understood why Tory MPs didn’t want to create the kind of political disruption that a government defeat would create. He added that the party was ‘united’ in its desire to stop the boats.
It hasn’t been a particularly bad-tempered debate today, either, despite the eternal mood in the Tory party. The main points of tension in the lengthy discussions over the course of the afternoon came when Labour’s Stella Creasy clashed with a number of Tories, including Suella Braverman and Danny Kruger, over what a foreign court is and what Churchill would have done, and when the Speaker pointed out how many members weren’t even bothering to stay to hear the end of speeches they had intervened on. Other than that, the impassioned warnings from Braverman and Kruger about the Bill not working were heard by a half-empty chamber.
They will continue to make that point even once the legislation is enacted, telling anyone who will listen that they did warn that this bill would not stop the boats after all. For those MPs who did rebel, the disruption that a revolt causes the prime minister is the point, because they think he is the electoral liability, not the legislation that Labour repeatedly branded a ‘farce’.
Suella Braverman
Bill Cash
Miriam Cates
Simon Clarke
Sarah Dines
James Duddridge
Mark Francois
Andrea Jenkyns
Robert Jenrick
David Jones
Danny Kruger
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