Rwanda showdown in HOURS as 10 changes made to Rishi’s flagship plan are set to be overturned by MPs
TEN changes made to Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda plan are set to be overturned by MPs tonight.
Ministers will strip out the amendments made in the House of Lords as part of the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Africa this spring.
Peers want to ensure Parliament can’t declare Rwanda safe without legal safeguards and allow court challenges where individuals feel they had wrongly been labelled as an adult.
But from around 8pm tonight MPs are expected to strip the changes from the bill before it heads back to the Lords on Wednesday.
The process is known as ‘ping pong’ as legislation moves from one chamber to the other - with the unelected house ultimately expected to back down.
Downing Street today said they believed they had the “right bill” and it remains their priority to get it through as “quickly as possible”.
Officials are currently identifying and have identified a cohort of around 150 people who they see as being on the first flights.
The Prime Minister’s Official spokesman said the flights should be ready in the weeks after the Bill passes.
The legislation will return to the Lords on Wednesday but the drawn-out process may see it pass after Easter if the Lords maintain resistance.
Mr Sunak today said: “I am still committed to the timeline that I set out previously, which is we aim to get a flight off in the spring.
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“It’s important that we get the Rwanda scheme up and running because we need to have a deterrent.
“We need to make it clear that if you come here illegally, you won’t be able to stay and we will be able to remove you. That is the only way to properly solve the issue of illegal migration.
“We’ve made good progress. Boat numbers were down by a third last year. That shows that our plan is working, but in order to finish the job, we need the Rwanda scheme through.”
Mr Sunak was speaking in Coventry at a business summit as his leadership comes under growing pressure amid a 20-point poll deficit.
Flights are unlikely to take off before mid-May according to The Times as Kigali wants a gap of two months after it accepts the first wave of migrants.
No 10 said “we don’t recognise that specific story” before adding “We are going to work with the government of Rwanda to ensure that there is smooth processing of each cohort of illegal migrants.”
The PM made it one of his five key priorities to "stop the boats" as part of a crackdown on asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats.