Government and Lords face new Rwanda showdown

Rishi Sunak insists his policy to process asylum seekers in Rwanda will become law, even if it means MPs sitting late into the night to pass it.

There has been a prolonged stand-off over the bill between the two Houses of Parliament over the past four months.

The House of Lords has consistently blocked the government's plan, and another vote will be held later.

But on Friday the PM said there will be no more delays, adding: "We will sit there and vote until it's done."

The government's planned legislation would drastically limit the grounds for legal challenges to its scheme to fly asylum seekers out to Rwanda, and make it easier to remove refugees who have arrived in the UK by illegal means - and has already been approved by the House of Commons on several occasions.

The most recent was last Wednesday, but the House of Lords blocked its passage into law by demanding changes to the bill, including an amendment that would exempt asylum seekers from Afghanistan, who had previously assisted British troops when the military was stationed there, from being among those forced to fly out to Rwanda.

They also said that flights should not take off until a committee of experts set up to monitor the scheme decides Rwanda has fulfilled certain safeguards.

The Lords want their two amendments added to the bill before they will ratify it, which is required before the government can pass it into law.

This ping pong between the two Houses of Parliament could go on until either the government concedes and makes concessions, or peers give up on their suggested amendments.

The Safety of Rwanda Bill is what Mr Sunak called "emergency legislation" and, if implemented, he says it would make it easier to keep his pledge to "stop the boats" - because the government says the prospect would be an effective deterrent for people who cross the English Channel in small boats in the hope of getting a new life in the UK.

Effectively, the legislation would drastically limit the grounds for legal challenges to the Rwanda scheme and it gives ministers the power to disregard some human rights law.

The scheme was first introduced on 14 April 2022 by then-prime minister Boris Johnson, but no asylum seeker has yet been sent to Rwanda - a small landlocked country central Africa - 4,000 miles (6,500km) from the UK.

Mr Sunak then took on the scheme when he became prime minister, after Liz Truss' short tenure, in October 2022.

After the Supreme Court ruling, the government introduced then this Safety of Rwanda bill to make clear in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country.

Critics say the scheme will put people at risk, and the legislation undermines the independence of the courts.

The back-and-forth between the House of Lords and the House of Commons over the past four months prompted Mr Sunak's declaration that he will require the two Houses to keep repeating the process until there is a breakthrough.