As Rishi Sunak prepares to face down the rebels in his party proposing amendments to his “toughest ever” Rwanda legislation, his predecessor but one has come out of the woodwork to add fuel to the fire.

In the last few minutes, Boris Johnson has announced his support for amendments proposed by right-wingers in the party that would effectively close all avenues to appeal deportation to Rwanda.

The Rwanda scheme was first proposed under Mr Johnson’s government in April 2022 – nearly two years ago – and not a single illegal migrant has yet been deported there.

The ex-PM said this morning the bill must be “as legally robust as possible” and that the amendments must be adopted to achieve that.

Downing Street argues that changes to the bill are not necessary, and are expected to propose a package of measures to rapidly deal with any appeals against deportations, as well as a promise to ignore unfavourable rulings in the European Court of Human Rights.