House of Lords passes five amendments to Rwanda bill, Rishi Sunak defeated

Rishi Sunak suffered his worst defeat in the House of Lords after the Archbishop of Canterbury and a former Conservative minister joined forces with the opposition to force through five amendments to the Rwanda deportation bill.

A series of setbacks for the government, most of which passed by an unusually large margin of around 100 votes, mean legislation aimed at clearing the way for asylum seekers to take one-way flights to Kigali will have to return to the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister has previously warned the unelected House of Representatives not to thwart the “will of the people” by blocking the passage of its Rwanda Security (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which has been approved by MPs.

Sunak has made “stopping the boats” a key commitment of his leadership. However, he has encountered some setbacks, including the bill being challenged in court. Last week, official auditors said sending 300 migrants to Rwanda would cost £1.8m each.

The draft legislation and the treaty with Rwanda aim to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled deportation plan after the Supreme Court ruled the plan was illegal.

As well as forcing judges to deem the East African country safe, it will also give ministers the power to ignore emergency bans. It was warned that the legislation was “fundamentally incompatible” with the UK’s human rights obligations and flouted international law.

But Downing Street said the government remained committed to sending flights to Rwanda “in the spring”.

Overall, peers supported five changes to the bill on Monday night, including ensuring it complies with the rule of law and that parliament cannot declare Rwanda safe until the treaty and its promised safeguards are fully implemented.

The House of Lords also backed a move to allow the presumption that the UK is a safe haven to be challenged in court.

Those who voted against the government included the Supreme Reverend Justin Welby and Tory dignitaries Ken Clarke, Lord Deben and Viscount Hailsham, who all Served cabinet positions.

The scale of the defeat raises the prospect of a protracted battle between the House of Commons and the House of Lords during a period of “ping pong”, in which legislation is hotly debated between the two houses until an agreement is reached.

David Anderson, a barrister and independent crossbencher, said the bill’s clause requiring Rwanda to be deemed safe “took us for fools”.

Lord Anderson moved an amendment to allow the presumption to be challenged in court, adding: “If Rwanda is as safe as the government wants us to state, then it need not worry about this scrutiny.

“Yet we are invited to adopt a fictional story, wrap it in the cloak of parliamentary sovereignty and grant it perpetual immunity from challenge. Tell a lie and call it true. Why should we agree to this? a little?”

Welby said international human rights law was created in the wake of the horrific crimes committed by Nazi Germany and was intended to serve as a “backstop” and “stopper” for governments. “Let us be clear, we are not in this situation at all,” the archbishop added.

“The government is not taking action on the scale that we have seen at that stage, but the government is challenging the right of international law to limit our movement.

Former chancellor Lord Clark said he hoped there would be a legal challenge to the bill if passed. “I can’t recall any precedent in my time where a government of any color has ever introduced a bill that asserts the truth – the truth is the truth,” he said.

Later, responding to concerns about the mental health support asylum seekers receive in Rwanda, Home Affairs Minister Andrew Sharpe said: “Asylum should be sought in the first safe country they come to.” “

The government faces the threat of further defeat when the bill goes before the House of Lords again on Wednesday.

Britain and France are planning a new customs partnership aimed at disrupting the supply chain for small boats in the English Channel.

Home Secretary James Cleverley chaired a meeting of the Calais Group of Nordic countries in Brussels on Monday. They plan to disrupt supply chains for ship parts including engines and construction materials.