Tory rightwingers set up showdown with Sunak over Rwanda bill

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Conservative rightwingers have unveiled amendments to tighten Rishi Sunak’s emergency Rwanda legislation, drawing new battle lines for the prime minister’s showdown with his party next week.

Around 30 MPs belonging to the “Five Families” of factions on the right flank of the Tory party are backing revisions to the legislation, introduced last month, that they claim would close the loopholes that could block migrants being removed to Rwanda.

These include an amendment that would compel ministers to automatically ignore “pyjama injunctions”, those granted at the last minute and sometimes late at night, from judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg seeking to ground flights to Rwanda.

Under another amendment, migrants would also be blocked from bringing individual claims to prevent their removal to the east African nation. Both amendments would allow for limited exceptions.

A third would block asylum seekers from trying to prevent their removal under the European Convention on Human Rights or other international treaties.

Robert Jenrick, former immigration minister, said: “The bill as drafted simply will not work because it doesn’t end the merry-go-round of legal challenges that frustrate removals.”

He said a failure to “fix” the bill would entail “more illegal crossings, more farcical migrant hotels and billions more of wasted taxpayers’ money” in the years ahead.

The plan was unveiled on Tuesday night after Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, confirmed that the bill would return to the House for committee stage next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sunak is facing severe pressure from both wings of his party over the bill, which is aimed at assuaging the Supreme Court’s concerns about the safety of Rwanda as a destination…