Rwanda asylum bill will be voted through, says UK minister

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Rishi Sunak’s bill to send asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda will be voted through on Wednesday, a government minister has said, as the prime minister tries to stave off a damaging revolt from rightwing Conservative MPs.

“It is going to get through tonight,” illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson told the BBC on Wednesday. “What you will also see this afternoon is a united determination to make sure this Rwanda policy works.”

Sunak was hit by the biggest rebellion of his premiership on Tuesday after 60 backbench Tories backed an amendment seeking to “toughen up” the proposed legislation by blocking asylum seekers from trying to prevent their removal under international human rights law.

Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resigned as Tory deputy chairs before they were sacked in order to vote for the amendment, as did Jane Stevenson, formerly a ministerial aide.

If it became law, the highly contentious Rwanda bill would see migrants who arrived in the UK by small boat sent to the central African country to seek asylum there.

The government believes moving even a few hundred asylum seekers would act as a strong deterrent, as it seeks to convince voters that it is determined to slash irregular migration ahead of the election this year.

Sunak — who won Tuesday’s vote thanks to the backing of Labour and other opposition parties — faces another threat to his authority on Wednesday evening as MPs decide whether to vote against the legislation as a whole at its third reading.

Although Sunak’s allies are confident that the rebels are bluffing and the legislation is widely expected to scrape through, a defeat would deal him a stinging blow.

Tomlinson played down Tory divisions, saying there was an “inch of difference” between MPs who wanted the legislation to be strengthened, including those who resigned on Tuesday…