Watch: Peers debate Rwanda bill ahead of Commons vote on Sunak’s flagship policy
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Your support makes all the difference.Watch as Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda bill faced a final parliamentary showdown on Monday, 22 April.
The prime minister’s plan was finally given the green light in the evening after the House of Lords gave up their fight with the House of Commons over amending the legislation.
Mr Sunak’s bill is aimed at making the plan to send asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda legally watertight.
The legislation is intended to overcome the objections of the Supreme Court by forcing judges to regard Rwanda as a safe country for asylum seekers and allowing ministers to ignore emergency injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights.
However, it has been subject to extensive parliamentary back-and-forth, with peers repeatedly blocking the bill with a series of amendments.
Peers had been trying to force the government to exempt Afghans who supported British troops overseas from being deported to Rwanda.
They had also pushed an amendment that would have made sure the terms of the UK’s treaty with Rwanda were met and that it was assessed to be a safe country before flights took off.
However the government did not cave pressure and didn’t include the changes to the bill.
Mr Sunak had already paid £240m to Rwanda by the end of 2023, and spending watchdog the National Audit Office says that the total cost of the plan will be at least £370m over five years.
The vote came after the prime minister blamed Labour opposition to the plan for the delay, although his own government had not taken earlier opportunities to rush the legislation through parliament.
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