Rishi Sunak will have been delighted last night to see his Rwanda Bill pass in the Commons, by 320 votes to 276. An expected Conservative rebellion was quelled, with only 11 Conservative MPs voting against the measure and no amendments accepted.
The vote exposed the posturing of the Conservative rebels. Fifty nine Conservative MPs were prepared to back an amendment tabled by Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, which would have meant that ‘interim measures’ made by the European Court of Human Rights would automatically be treated as not binding on the UK. But, when it came to the crunch, the vast majority of Conservative MPs could not bring themselves to reject the unamended Bill, whatever their concerns about its effectiveness.
Having rather preposterously dubbed themselves ‘the five families’, after the mafia crime syndicates operating in New York, the rebels looked less like Michael Corleone, taking care of business and rather more like the hapless Fredo, bungling a conspiracy against the boss.
The game is not up for opponents of the Rwanda scheme
Their strategy was curious.
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