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Rishi Sunak will hold a press conference from Downing Street on Monday morning as the House of Commons and Lords prepare for a long-delayed late-night showdown over Rwanda policy.
The prime minister vowed on Friday that both houses would deliberate until late tonight to advance the Rwanda Security Bill, which aims to bypass a legal block allowing deportation flights to take off to the East African country.
Why is the Rwanda bill delayed?
The Rwanda Security Bill has gone back and forth between the House of Commons and Lords three times since mid-March, when peers first agreed on a series of amendments to the bill.
Downing Street has repeatedly made clear it will not make any concessions on the bill, while progress on the bill has stalled as Labor colleagues continue to support amendments.
Last Wednesday, colleagues again sent a series of changes to the bill back to the House, paving the way for an unusual fourth round of parliamentary ping pong scheduled for Monday.
One amendment, which was voted 245-208, would ensure that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until the promised protections were in place, and the other amendment (247-195) ) exempts Afghans and others who fought alongside British forces from deportation to Rwanda.
The Conservatives are the largest party in both the House of Commons and the Lords, but they are outnumbered in the House of Lords by a combination of Labor, Liberal Democrats and non-partisan MPs.
Labor insiders said the bill was returned to the Lord on Monday and the party intends to continue to whip its own MPs to support it, with the policy’s future still in parliament. It will likely be a more up-and-down situation.
What has the Prime Minister said so far?
Asked about the future of Rwanda policy after a speech in central London on Friday, Mr Sunak said repeated policy delays had “strapped his patience”.
“The very simple thing about Rwanda is that everyone has repeatedly tried to stop this bill from passing. We saw it again this week.
“I’ve seen Labor colleagues blocking us again and it’s extremely frustrating. Everyone’s patience with this has run out and mine has certainly run out too. ” he told reporters.
“So our current intention is to get this done on Monday. No more upfront fluctuations or delays. We’re going to get this done on Monday, and we’ll just sit there until it’s done. I will vote.
Mr Sunak also hinted that flights to Rwanda may not take off until the spring as previously promised, saying: “The priority now is to get this bill passed. We have made it clear that we intend to complete the process – we do not want any further prejudgment or delay.
“Then we will take the planes out of service and try to build up deterrence, because that is the only way to solve this problem.”
A senior government official also said on Sunday that Labor should “respect the will of the people” and not allow further amendments to the bill.
What will happen tonight?
From early Monday afternoon, MPs will consider the amendment voted on by MPs on Friday, which the Conservatives plan to block for the fourth time.
It will then be sent back to the House of Lords for consideration and a vote, with the hope that other MPs will reinstate similar amendments. Once this is completed, the revised bill will be returned to the House of Commons for a fifth time.
This process often takes place over several days due to parliamentary time constraints, but the Prime Minister is prepared to keep MPs in the House of Commons until late tonight to vote on the bill once it is returned from Parliament. It was shown that there is.
If the Conservatives whip MPs to vote late tonight, Labor and other parties are expected to follow suit, potentially suspending the vote in the entire House of Commons until the early hours of the morning.
With the government insisting the bill will be passed today, the Rwanda bill may be introduced several more times between the two houses before it is finally passed.