Rishi Sunak has dodged questions over whether he will call a general election if he loses a crunch vote on his Rwanda bill – which he insisted was not a vote of confidence in his leadership.
The prime minister repeatedly defended the bill from its critics at a press conference on Thursday as questions mount over whether it will be able to pass in the Commons next week.
Mr Sunak described the bill, which compels UK judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country for asylum seekers, as the “toughest anti-immigration law” that had ever been brought in, adding that he knew it would “upset some people”.
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The prime minister convened the news conference just hours after Robert Jenrick quit his post as immigration minister over the bill, which he said did not go “far enough” and represented a “triumph of hope over experience”.
During the press conference, Mr Sunak was asked by Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby whether he would call an election if he could not get the bill through parliament.
“You’ve lost control of your party and this has become a confidence issue, not in parliament but in you,” she said.
“Do you accept that, and will you call an election if you lose these votes?”
Mr Sunak dodged the question and said he wanted to “finish the job”, adding: “I am confident I can get this thing done.”
The government published the long-awaited Safety of Rwanda Bill just a day after Home Secretary James Cleverly visited the country to sign a new treaty aimed at reviving the government’s troubled plan to send asylum seekers there.
In its judgement last month, the UK’s highest court ruled the scheme unlawful on the grounds people could be returned to their home countries and face harm, a process known as refoulement that would breach international law.
The emergency bill was designed to appease both wings of the Conservative Party – the right wing and the more moderate One Nation group – by allowing the UK to disapply aspects of the Human Rights Act but not the legislation in its entirety.
But the Tory right – including Mr Jenrick and former home secretary Suella Braverman – want the bill to disregard the entire Human Rights Act with regard to asylum cases, as well as include extra powers to dismiss challenges under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
Speaking to the BBC today, Ms Braverman was clear in her belief that unless the prime minister chose to “change course” and alter the bill to “totally exclude international law”, it would “fail”.
Mr Sunak said the new bill “fundamentally addresses” the issues brought up by the Supreme Court and would allow flights to take off to Rwanda.
He said Mr Jenrick was “not right” in his assessment and denied suggestions he would fail to keep his promises on immigration.
“No, he’s simply not right, actually,” he told reporters.
Sunak has picked a side – we must wait and see if his party tear him down
Rishi Sunak has just done something very important.
He has placed his stake in the ground, absolutely unambiguously, about how he is, and how he isn’t, going to tackle illegal migration.
In doing so, he has picked a side and now we wait to see whether his party go along with her or tear him down.
Mr Sunak made the argument in that press conference that he has come up with the toughest-ever, and toughest possible, approach to try and get this Rwanda policy actually into action.
But he is not doing that by leaving international conventions and international laws, he’s gone as far he as he thinks he can go without doing that.
He was effectively explaining that to the British public.
He was saying we’re going to pass a law that simply says Rwanda is safe. He said we’re going to pass a law that domestic courts can’t take account of international law and the European Convention on Human Rights.
But he drew the line at actually leaving these international obligations and saying that we were going to ignore final judgments from the Strasbourg court.
He did so, saying that if he went any further Rwanda would collapse the Rwanda deal.
But he has decided not to make this a back me or sack me moment.
We’re about to have this piece of legislation that he’s going to try and get through the Houses of Parliament.
But he is not confident enough to say this is what is known as a matter of confidence. In other words, if his MPs don’t back him in sufficient numbers, and this piece of legislation falls, there will be an election.
It is quite clear Mr Sunak is putting all of his eggs into the basket of trying to get this bill through.
It only takes 29 Tory MPs to vote against it for the government to lose and who knows what happens then.
“For the people who say ‘you should do something different’, the difference between them and me is an inch, given everything that we have closed. We’re talking about an inch.
“That inch by the way is the difference between the Rwandans participating in this scheme and not.”
Pressed again on whether the vote on the Rwanda policy should be treated as a vote of confidence in his leadership, he replied: “No, but what this vote is about is about confidence in parliament.”
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Rishi Sunak facing political fight of his life as he wars with right wing Tories over Rwanda bill
Robert Jenrick’s resignation letter and Rishi Sunak’s response in full
He said “the question now is to the Labour Party” and whether it would back the bill – something the party has confirmed it would not do.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden said the government was “tearing itself apart” over the Rwanda scheme.
“The prime minister admitted that the Rwandan government had had to warn the UK government not to break international law,” he said.
“You’ve got to wonder what is the point of them if they’re just going to carry on like this?”
