After successfully fighting to get it unamended through the House of Commons, Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill is returning to parliament today and will be debated in the House of Lords.
The bill, designed to rescue the embattled deportation scheme, declares Rwanda a safe country and severely limits the human rights laws applicable to deportations in a bid to prevent migrants from being able to appeal and stop flights taking off.
Over 70 peers have signed up to speak in the debate, and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is expected to attack it.
But the PM’s official spokesperson has said the bill is “a key part of how we stop violent criminal gangs targeting vulnerable people that has led to too many deaths in the English Channel”.
The went on: “That is the right thing to do, it is also the fair thing to do both for taxpayers and for those individuals seeking to come here through safe and legal routes who see their place jumped by those who can afford to make crossings on small boats.
“We’ve worked very carefully both on the bill and the treaty in coordination with the Rwanda government and we continue to believe that this bill is the right way forward to get the flights off the ground and to stop the boats.”
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