Asylum offshoring plan beats Parliament's end-of-session deadline

A government plan to allow asylum cases to be processed overseas will become law, after MPs and peers passed it just in time to beat the cut-off point.

Parliament will be suspended later on Thursday, and legislation must be approved by then or be thrown out.

The Nationality and Borders Bill passed on Wednesday night, ending months of rows between the Lords and the Commons over its likely impact on refugees.

Controversial changes to elections and the justice system also passed.

Parliament is being prorogued, or suspended, so the government can lay out its plans for the next year or so when it returns for the Queen's Speech on 10 May.

All bills - which must be approved in every detail by both the Commons and Lords - have to be passed or discarded by the time Thursday's proceedings end.

Contentious provisions in the Nationality and Borders Bill included offshoring asylum - handling claims at overseas facilities - and making it a criminal offence to knowingly arrive in the UK illegally.

The Lords has repeatedly amended the legislation and sent it back to the Commons, where MPs, the majority of whom are Conservatives, have overturned the changes.

This back-and-forth, known as parliamentary "ping-pong", ended on Wednesday when, following an occasionally bad-tempered debate, the Lords backed the bill.

There were cries of "shame" from some peers.

Liberal Democrat Lord Paddick said he was "appalled" and "disgusted" by the bill, while Labour former shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti accused the Commons of giving "two fingers" to the Lords.

But Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said the bill was compatible with international law on refugees.

More than 200 organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, said they would challenge its outcomes, calling it "anti-refugee".

In a statement, they said the new law "rips up internationally recognised rights for people fleeing war and persecution, and will criminalise thousands of refugees".

But it has said a "firm but fair" asylum system is needed to tackle people-smuggling gangs and reduce deaths among people making dangerous cross-Channel journeys in small boats.

Peers also backed down from their row with the Commons over the Elections Bill.

This includes the introduction of photo ID for voters, which it is feared could see a significant number of people turned away from polling stations.

Other measures include parliamentary oversight of the Electoral Commission, which monitors and runs the voting system, and scrapping the 15-year limit on British citizens living overseas being able to vote from abroad.

Labour's Baroness Hayman said the government had "simply got it wrong on requiring voter ID" and was "undermining of the independence of the Electoral Commission".

Liberal Democrat Lord Wallace of Saltaire said: "One of the many adverse affects of this bill is that it makes it much easier, and without barriers, for overseas citizens to vote, but makes it more difficult for domestic citizens to vote. That's very odd, and not entirely democratic."

But Cabinet Office minister Lord True said the government did not have a "static position" on which forms of ID could be used to access polling stations.

The Judicial Review and Courts Bill also went through after peers dropped a last-ditch attempt to fund bereaved families' legal representation at inquests involving public bodies.

The government said the inclusion of the clause to this effect was "premature", as there was an ongoing consultation on legal aid access.