Rishi Sunak on Tuesday night survived what had essentially become a vote of confidence in his leadership after not a single Tory MP voted against his Rwanda Bill.
For at least the past week, members of the political and press classes have warned that the bill could be enough to bring the prime minister down. The legislation, aimed at addressing the Supreme Court’s concerns about sending illegal migrants for processing in Rwanda, has “so many holes in it,” said Tory ‘hardline’ ringleader Mark Francois, that “the feeling in the meeting [of the party’s ‘right’] is that the government will be best advised to pull the bill and to come up with a revised version that works better.” Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick thought the bill was so bad that he resigned over it.
Not one of those Tories who felt this way about the bill—including another alleged immigration hardliner, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman—voted against it, preferring instead to abstain. Francois could go no further than to say: “Collectively we will not be supportive of it.”
As such, Sunak has, as Matthew Parris put it in The Times, made it through the “night of the living dead”—this after days of “frenetic activity” around Westminster, said to be reminiscent of Tory fights over Brexit.
We reported yesterday that sources from the Tory ‘right’ claimed the prime minister’s efforts to drum up their support for the bill “failed to change minds”; they remained convinced the legislation did not go far enough. What Sunak was frightened of was toughening the bill to the extent that he scared off the party’s more liberal wing.
After this, the Times added that the PM really would not “bow to rebel demands,” but that he did offer an “olive branch.” The paper added that Sunak said
he would … be willing to consider amendments to make the legislation “legally watertight.” … He said the government could add further curbs on individual claims but insisted they must be “consistent” with the government’s legal advice and the “current framework” of the bill. (Emphasis added)
So the Tory leader promised nothing but his backbenchers decided, at least, to save the battle over this bill for another day. (Another vote will take place in the New Year.) Perhaps this has something to do with what has been described as the “dark arts” of the party whips, or even the “sweeteners”—boosts for their constituencies, or maybe promises of future roles—allegedly offered to newer MPs to keep them on side.
