No more concessions to Lords on Rwanda bill, No 10 signals – UK politics live
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Government not planning further concessions to Lords on Rwanda bill, No 10 signals
MPs will vote tonight on the latest Lords amendments to the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill. If the first strike in the “ping pong” process comes when the Commons first votes to remove Lords amendemnts, and sends a bill back along the corridor to the upper chamber, tonight will be strike three. On 18 March MPs voted down the original 10 Lords amendments. On 20 March peers voted, in effect, to put seven of them back in.
Tonight MPs are expected to vote for government amendments removing six of them. For technical reasons, the government cannot just vote down the final one (exempting victims of modern slavery from deportation to Rwanda) without collapsing the bill under the double insistence rule, and instead it has tabled an alternative amendment proposing an annual report into how the Act affects modern slavery victims. In the Lords this is likely to be viewed as a very minimal, and largely cosmetic, concession.
The government does not seem minded to offer more, meaningful concessions to peers. At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson told journalists:
We’ve always been clear that the bill, as previously through the House of Commons, is the right bill to get flights off the ground.
Asked if Rishi Sunak had a message for peers, the spokesperson said:
This week parliament has the opportunity to pass a bill that will save the lives of those being exploited by people-smuggling gangs.
It is clear that we cannot continue with the status quo which is unfair and uncompassionate. Now is the time to change the equation against gangs and unite behind the bills.
After tonight the bill will return to the Lords tomorrow. It is expected that at that point peers will again vote down the government amendments, and vote again to insert a handful of extra safeguards into the legislation, but the “ping pong” process is expected to end on Wednesday, with peers ultimately accepting the will of the elected chamber, which is what almost always happens on these occasions.
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At the No 10 lobby briefing this morning, when asked if the timetable was slipping, the prime minister’s spokesperson said:
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Our commitment remains to get flights off as soon as possible, and that has not changed.
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But the spokesperson declined invitations to say the flights could be leaving in the spring.
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MPs will vote tonight on the latest Lords amendments to the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill. If the first strike in the “ping pong” process comes when the Commons first votes to remove Lords amendemnts, and sends a bill back along the corridor to the upper chamber, tonight will be strike three. On 18 March MPs voted down the original 10 Lords amendments. On 20 March peers voted, in effect, to put seven of them back in.
“,”elementId”:”564da503-5ddb-4260-b546-ef2fd87cce7d”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Tonight MPs are expected to vote for government amendments removing six of them. For technical reasons, the government cannot just vote down the final one (exempting victims of modern slavery from deportation to Rwanda) without collapsing the bill under the double insistence rule, and instead it has tabled an alternative amendment proposing an annual report into how the Act affects modern slavery victims. In the Lords this is likely to be viewed as a very minimal, and largely cosmetic, concession.
“,”elementId”:”15f2af43-215c-49a6-ade2-f8b1c4c38e5c”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
The government does not seem minded to offer more, meaningful concessions to peers. At the No 10 lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson told journalists:
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We’ve always been clear that the bill, as previously through the House of Commons, is the right bill to get flights off the ground.
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“,”elementId”:”0c6b1f0b-8168-4764-a437-fb352c49b13d”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Asked if Rishi Sunak had a message for peers, the spokesperson said:
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This week parliament has the opportunity to pass a bill that will save the lives of those being exploited by people-smuggling gangs.
\n
It is clear that we cannot continue with the status quo which is unfair and uncompassionate. Now is the time to change the equation against gangs and unite behind the bills.
\n
“,”elementId”:”b29c4086-12e8-4fb0-ab6c-3d307192a43a”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
After tonight the bill will return to the Lords tomorrow. It is expected that at that point peers will again vote down the government amendments, and vote again to insert a handful of extra safeguards into the legislation, but the “ping pong” process is expected to end on Wednesday, with peers ultimately accepting the will of the elected chamber, which is what almost always happens on these occasions.
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In his interviews this morning David Cameron, the foreign secretary, indicated that, if Israel retaliates against Iran for the attack on Saturday night, the UK won’t offer military support. He told the Today programme:
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We are saying very clearly we don’t support a retaliatory strike. We don’t think they should make one.
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But Cameron did not rule out Britain offering further defensive support to Israel in the event of retaliation leading to another attack by Iran. He said:
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If they [the Israelis] come under attack, that’s a different issue.
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But what we are saying very clearly to the Israelis is ‘we respect your right to take action, you are an independent, sovereign country, you’ve suffered what could have been a calamitous attack, you’ve bravely fought it off, you’ve had a success, Iran has had a failure, the right thing to do, the tough thing to do now is not to escalate further but to switch the focus back on to getting the hostages…
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