First flights to Rwanda ‘delayed until June’ after House of Lords inflicts series of new defeats on bill

21 March 2024, 00:45 | Updated: 21 March 2024, 00:50

The first flights to Rwanda under the Government’s flagship bill will be delayed until June following a series of defeats in the House of Lords on Wednesday.

The Lords backed seven amendments to the Government’s Rwanda bill, as peers again pressed their demands for revisions to the legislation, including overturning the bid to oust the courts from the process.

Home Secretary James Cleverly sought to blame Labour for the latest setback, as he accused opponents in the Lords of delaying the bill while “people are risking their lives” attempting the Channel crossing.

He said: “While Labour and their allies try anything to delay, disrupt or destroy that plan, people are risking their lives in the hands of people who don’t care if they die as long as they pay.

“The talking needs to end so we can get on with the job of saving lives and stopping the boats.”

The latest setbacks mean a continuation of the Westminster stand-off known as parliamentary "ping pong", where the Houses bat one another's proposed changes to draft legislation back and forth.

Mr Sunak previously set the target of deportation flights setting off for Kigali by the Spring.

Read more: Archbishop of Canterbury backs shake-up to 'broken' asylum system ahead of showdown over Rwanda Bill

Read more: MPs reject Rwanda Bill amendments as Sunak faces fresh battle with Lords over migrant plan

However, government sources confirmed to The Times that they would not force the bill through parliament before Easter as the Commons goes to recess on March 26, with peers heading away from Westminster a day later.

This means the bill will return to the Commons on April 15 for votes on the amendments and flights to Rwanda are likely to be delayed until June at the earliest.

This is because it will take the Home Office between six to 10 weeks to overcome logistical and legal obstacles after the legislation receives royal assent.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said following the defeat: “The half a billion pound Rwanda scheme is a failing farce, which will only cover less than 1% of asylum arrivals.

"It is clearer than ever that Rishi Sunak knows this plan won't work and only sees it as a political gimmick to get what the former immigration minister described as 'symbolic flights off just before an election'.

"If the Conservatives were ready to implement this, they would be bringing the Bill back to complete the remaining stages next week and get on with it.

"But because their plans aren't ready, they've decided to delay the Bill as well, so they can try to blame everyone else for the chaos they have created, and the fact that they haven't got a proper plan."

It comes after MPs rejected 10 amendments to the bill earlier this week.

Among the amendments overturned was an attempt to ensure the bill complies with domestic and international law and a requirement that Parliament cannot declare Rwanda to be a safe country until the treaty with its promised safeguards is fully implemented.

Peers also moved an amendment to exempt people from removal to Rwanda if they have worked with the UK armed forces or UK Government overseas.

Home Office minister Michael Tomlinson said Rwanda has a "long and proud history" of integrating asylum seekers and refugees and said the UK Government had "published evidence" in support of Rwanda being a safe country.

"I've never told a public lie in all the 16 years of being Minister...I'm not going to tell one now" says Lord Deben

But speaking on LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr on Monday, Lord Deben said: "The government has said that Rwanda will be safe, but isn't safe at the moment.

"They're asking me to vote that it is safe and I've never told a public lie in all the 16 years of being a minister. I'm not going to tell one now."

He added: "I want it to be constitutionally right. That's what the House of Lords is there for and that's the one time in which the House of Lords could properly stop a bill because it is unconstitutional."

The scheme could cost taxpayers nearly £2 million for each of the first 300 asylum seekers sent to Rwanda, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

Some 3,529 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the journey from France, according to the latest provisional Home Office figures.

The bill and a treaty with Rwanda are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled asylum scheme after the Supreme Court ruled the plan was unlawful.

As well as compelling judges to regard the East African country as safe, it would also give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.

But the Lords again insisted on an amendment to restore the jurisdiction of domestic courts in relation to the safety of Rwanda and enable them to intervene.