The Rwanda Bill comes back to parliament next week which means a return of Westminster’s favourite parlour game: Tory blue-on-blue. The left of the party has had their say this week, with Matt Warman’s jibes on Tuesday and Damian Green’s warning that ‘the Prime Minister looked me in the eye and said that he doesn’t want to go any further.’ But today it’s the turn of the Tory right, with more than 50 names now signed up to Sir Bill Cash’s amendment to toughen up the Bill.
And cometh the hour, cometh the Braverman as the former Home Secretary today decided to give her first television interview since her sacking. The Fareham MP told GB News this afternoon that the legislation is ‘fundamentally flawed’ owing to its failure to stop both individual court claims and the so-called ‘pyjama injunctions’ sanctioned by the European Court of Human Rights. Following the failure of both the National and Borders Act and the Illegal Migration Act, she called the current Bill a ‘betrayal to the British people’ adding that ‘This is our last chance to get it right. And woe betide a government that fails the British people again.’
Ooft. Braverman also argued there is significant disagreement within the ranks of Rishi Sunak’s own government about the legislation, saying ‘I have been very concerned by the high number of ministers to whom I have spoken who have grave reservations about this Bill.’ Asked how many, she said: ‘Oh, dozens. I actually haven’t spoken to many ministers who genuinely believe that this Bill is going to work.’ Most ominously, she warned the Prime Minister that she will vote against Rwanda Bill at third reading if ‘no improvements’ are made.
A government Bill has not been defeated at third reading in the Commons since 1977. Good luck next week Rishi…
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