UK PM Rishi Sunak’s flagship bill to fly migrants to Rwanda hits deadlock

London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s flagship legislation aimed at flying illegal migrants to Rwanda has hit another set of parliamentary hurdles after the House of Lords delivered multiple defeats on the draft bill, sending it back to the Commons.

The Safety of Rwanda Bill will return for members of Parliament to vote on in mid-April after the Easter recess as the Upper House peers rejected the changes of the House of Commons in seven votes, with majorities ranging between 30 and 55, on Wednesday night.

They expressed support for amendments to water down the hardline legislation that seeks to deem the East African country safe in law to block legal challenges to migrants being flown out to Rwanda while their asylum claims are assessed.

While the Opposition Labour Party has branded the scheme a costly “gimmick”, the Conservative government has said it is a key tool to tackle soaring illegal migration via dangerous small boats crossing the English Channel.

“It is crystal clear, as we are seeing from the Labour Party’s opposition in this House, that while we are committed to stopping the boats, the Labour Party would keep them coming,” said Sunak in the Commons, when questioned about his Rwanda scheme on Wednesday.

“Since I became Prime Minister, the number of small boat crossings is down by over a third. That is because we have doubled National Crime Agency funding and we have increased illegal immigration enforcement raids by 70 per cent. We have closed 7,500 bank accounts, deported 24,000 illegal migrants and processed over 112,000 cases — more than at any point in the last two decades,” he claimed.

Labour Leader Keir Starmer accused the government of wasting taxpayer’s money on the scheme, which has a reported bill of around GBP 600 million.

“The tragedy is we know the Prime Minister does not even believe in the Rwanda gimmick… His great hope is to placate those in his party with a couple of empty planes, praying they will not notice when the flights stop going, the boats are still coming and the costs keep mounting,” said Starmer.

The Rwanda bill, meanwhile, remains in a deadlock phase between the two Houses of Parliament until an agreement can be reached on the final wording. The government is expected to hold consecutive days of votes in both Houses once Parliament is back in session post-Easter next month until a consensus can be found.

This means the likelihood of the first flights of migrants taking off for Rwanda is not before June at the earliest after the bill clears its parliamentary journey and receives the King’s royal assent to become law. The legislation is crucial to Sunak’s stated priorities ahead of a general election, with his “stop the boats” pledge hinging on this flagship policy to fly asylum seekers out to Rwanda and show he is cracking down on illegal migration to the UK shores.