British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has survived a crunch vote today (12), and gained a little room for maneuver while facing the revolt by dozens of his own Tory lawmakers.
Sunak won a parliamentary vote on an emergency bill to revive his flagship plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Sunak won the first vote on the legislation in the House of Commons after a day of negotiations to quell dissatisfaction among the ranks.
Reuters reported:
“‘The British people should decide who gets to come to this country – not criminal gangs or foreign courts’, Sunak said on X after the result. ‘That’s what this bill delivers’.”
Last month, the UK Supreme Court ruled Sunak’s policy of deporting to Rwanda those arriving illegally in small boats on England’s southern coast would breach British and international human rights laws and agreements.
“In response, Sunak agreed on a new treaty with the East African nation and brought forward emergency legislation designed to override legal obstacles that would stop deportations.”
Conservatives are 20 pints behind Labour in the polls, fractured and lacking leadership, after 13 years in power.
“All 350 Conservative lawmakers had been ordered by those in charge of party management to back it, but almost 40 were not recorded as having voted. The bill passed by 313 votes to 269. ‘We have decided collectively that we cannot support the bill tonight because of its many omissions’, Mark Francois, speaking on behalf of some right-wing Conservative lawmakers, said ahead of the vote.”
The vote for Brexit was seven years ago, and no less than seven Conservative prime ministers have come and gone with Sunak in serious danger of being replaced, too.
“The Conservatives have repeatedly failed to meet targets to reduce immigration, which has soared even after Brexit stripped EU citizens of the right of free movement, with legal net immigration reaching 745,000 last year.”
The endless stream of inflatable boats crossing the Channel remain a top concern – and stopping them is an unfulfilled campaign promise by Sunak.
Britain has paid 240 million pounds ($300 million) to Rwanda, but not migrant has been sent there yet. Rwanda will also only have the capacity to settle hundreds of migrants from Britain at a time – far too few to make a real difference.
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