Ministers have come under fire for failing to “run votes through the night” as peers blocked Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill for a fourth time on Wednesday, threatening further delays to the first deportation flights.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, said the Government should have kept Parliament sitting around the clock on Wednesday night until the ping-pong legislative battle between the Lords and the Commons was resolved and the Bill was passed.
Peers backed two amendments – to exempt Afghan workers who served alongside the British military and to introduce extra checks on whether Rwanda is safe for asylum seekers – by majorities of 52 and 37 votes.
Just hours earlier, both amendments had been rejected for a third time by the Commons. The stand-off means the final stages of the Safety of Rwanda Bill will now be delayed until Monday, when it will return to the Commons for the fourth time.
Sir Iain criticised the Government for its “soft” tactics, saying: “Why don’t we do it tonight? I don’t understand why the Government goes soft. Why isn’t the Government running it round the clock? We [MPs] don’t mind because we want to get it done.
“Every day lost is a day wasted. Lots of MPs are saying why didn’t we run it round the clock before Easter. Under Baroness Thatcher, that would have been the approach.”
Mr Sunak has previously said he hopes the deportation flights to Rwanda can begin before the end of the spring.
Officials anticipate that the legal appeal process required under law for migrants will take between four and eight weeks, which could push the first flights to June.
It is unusual to have four rounds of legislative ping-pong between MPs and peers, although there were similar battles over the Government’s levelling up and economic crime Bills.
Senior Tory MPs accused the Lords of breaching a long-standing agreement that the Upper House “refines”, but does not block, legislation from the democratically elected Commons.
Sir John Hayes, a former Home Office minister, said: “Many peers will take the view that their legitimacy depends on their acceptance that the elected House’s will must prevail. When the Lords challenges that, it undermines their own legitimacy.”
James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, accused Labour of being “uncomfortable with tackling immigration” after the party joined the Liberal Democrats and crossbenchers to defeat the Government.
“Terrified that the Rwanda scheme will work, and desperate to delay or disrupt over 100 votes about stopping the boats, Labour have acted again to block the passage of the Rwanda Bill,” he said.
“It’s been another politically cynical effort by them, who have no alternative deterrent and no plan to tackle illegal migration, to frustrate the only solution on offer.
“We want to break the criminal people-smuggling gangs and stop the boats. Labour, uncomfortable with tackling immigration, will clearly stop at nothing to stop the planes.”
The Lords votes came after the Commons rejected four amendments to the legislation passed by the Upper House on Tuesday evening. The Government had refused to offer any concessions.
“We are not considering concessions,” said the Prime Minister’s official spokesman. “We believe the Bill as it stands is the right Bill and the quickest way to get flights off the ground.”
Dame Priti Patel, a former home secretary, said: “The British public are sick to death of parliamentary process now stopping a policy they back from being enacted. All this is doing is empowering the people smugglers. They become emboldened by any dither and delay.”
Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, said: “Neither Prime Minister nor the Home Secretary believe this ‘bats---’ Bill will end the chaos the Tories have created in our asylum system.
“More people arrived on small boats in a single day this weekend than will be sent to Rwanda in a year, and yet they’ve committed half a billion pounds of taxpayer’s money to this hare-brained scheme.
“They can try to blame Labour, the Lords, or even the former military leaders who voted to amend the Government’s Bill to prevent Afghan interpreters who helped our armed forces from being sent to Rwanda.
“But this is their mess, and they have no idea how to solve it. They should be putting the time and money wasted on this scheme into properly protecting our border security and going after the criminal smuggler gangs.”
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