Still 'credible' for Rwanda flights to take off in spring, home secretary says

The government is still hoping it will be able to start flying asylum seekers to Rwanda in the spring, according to the home secretary.

James Cleverly confirmed his aims to Sky News the morning after the government managed to keep its Safety of Rwanda bill alive despite a rebellion of more than 20 backbench MPs.

While the bill passed by 43 votes, if a substantial number of the 37 Tory MPs who abstained had voted against it the government would be in trouble; similarly, losing a proportion of supportive Conservative MPs could spell disaster.

Some of those who have voiced concerns about the legislation have said they wanted the bill to progress to the next stage so they can amend it.

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For those on the right of the Conservative Party, this would mean making it more hardline – and there have been reports that One Nation centrist Tories may try and wreck the bill by watering it down.

This Rwanda bill seeks to unilaterally declare the African nation a safe country, and prevent last minute stopping orders on planes handed down from Europe from being actioned.

This is being done to address concerns raised by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

“We want to get flights off next year, ideally in the spring is a credible timescale,” Mr Cleverly said.

He added they will “go as soon as we can get them” – and that the government is “not waiting for some arbitrary point in time”.

“We are working as quickly as we can,” he said.

Rishi Sunak said last month that spring was still his deadline to get planes off the ground.

On amendments, Mr Cleverly said the government is “more than willing to listen to good faith amendments that are designed to make the bill better”.

But these would need to be “within the bounds of international law”, while keeping the bill “in a state that the Rwandans are happy to work with” and letting the legislation remain “effective”.

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One area raised by Tory MPs unhappy with the Safety of Rwanda bill is the powers contained within it to allow judges to ignore European court orders.

Robert Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister over the bill, called the government’s position “sophistry” – meaning a clever argument aiming to say that something false is true.

He claimed using the powers to ignore international court rulings would be “illegal to use” and therefore not realistic.

This – and the allowance for individuals to appeal their deportations – still seem to be the main bugbears for the constellation of right-wing Tory rebel groups.

But hardening this position and potentially putting the UK in breach of international commitments could lead to the Rwandan government pulling out of the treaty.

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And on the domestic side, One Nation Conservatives – like former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland – have said removing provisions like the grounds for individuals to appeal would “set up a fistfight” with the judiciary.

Further parliamentary debate on the bill – and the tabling of amendments – is expected in the new year.

Polling conducted on the 11 and 12 December – the day before and of the vote – showed Mr Sunak had fallen to his lowest ever net favourability rating with the public of -49.

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