Rwanda bill – latest: Rishi Sunak pleads with the House of Lords to back deportation plan

There was a shout of “shame” as Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda legislation was introduced to the House of Lords.

In keeping with convention, the flagship deportation plan received an unopposed first reading in the unelected chamber following its approval by MPs.

However it faces a rocky ride at future stages with many peers already having raised concerns.

Rishi Sunak’s claim to have cleared the asylum backlog has been slapped down by a watchdog.

The prime minister was accused of lying when he made the comment earlier this month.

The government has now been reprimanded by the UK Statistics Authority, which said the episode “may affect public trust”.

Kate Devlin has the full report:

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan is a “crazy hill” for the Conservative Party to be fighting on, a frustrated former cabinet minister has said.

The anonymous MP told Sky News they were worried voters would think the Tories were a “single issue” party.

A YouGov poll published earlier this morning found the party had dipped to 20 per cent – 27 points behind Labour – and the lowest level since Liz Truss was prime minister.

More migrants crossed the Channel yesterday than Rwanda currently has capacity for under the UK’s deportation partnership with the east African nation, Archie Mitchell reports.

Some 358 migrants were detected crossing the channel on Wednesday, while the High Court was told last year that the physical capacity for housing asylum seekers in Rwanda was limited to 100.

The government, however, has said the capacity of the scheme is uncapped.

Rishi Sunak has refused to guarantee asylum seekers will be deported to Rwanda before the next election, Archie Mitchell reports.

The prime minister could not say that flights will take off before an autumn vote, two and a half years after the policy was announced, instead saying he is acting with “urgency”.

At his press conference, Mr Sunak was twice asked if he could guarantee flights would take off before the general election.

But he did not say they would.

He said “the question now is for the Labour Party and the House of Lords”.

“Will they support this bill so we can get it on the statute book as quickly as possible so that we can start the flight because that’s what we need to do,” Mr Sunak said.

The prime minister said during the press conference that ministers will make decisions regarding illegal migration, Zoe Grunewald reports.

He told press conference that he is willing to disregard Rule 39 court orders pertaining to migrant deportations in certain circumstances.

“If you’re asking me if there are circumstances in which I would ignore rule 39, the answer is clearly yes,” he said.

“It is important that we fix this problem”.

Rishi Sunak has warned that taxes would go up under a Labour government, after his own government put taxes up to the highest level since World War 2, Archie Mitchell reports.

The prime minister said he wants to be able to “keep cutting taxes”, despite the Institute for Fiscal Studies saying this will be “the biggest tax-raising parliament since records began”.

He went on to claim that the Labour leader’s green spending plans would lead to tax rises under Keir Starmer.

Rishi Sunak has criticised Labour’s position on illegal migration, telling press that Labour leader Keir Starmer has had “four years to set out an alternative and hasn’t done so” and accused him of “sniping from the sidelines”, Zoe Grunewald reports.

He also said that the Labour Party have offered “no alternative plan” to tackle illegal migration and would “scrap” the Rwanda scheme altogether.