Rwanda bill UK: Tory deputy chairs Lee Anderson and Brendan Clark-Smith quit to back rebel amendments

Some 68 MPs, including 60 Tories, voted in favour of changes to the Safety of Rwanda Bill which seeks to ensure UK and international law cannot be used to block a person being removed to Rwanda.

The scope of the rebellion would be more than enough to sink the Bill and overturn the Government’s working majority of 54 if it were repeated at its final Commons hurdle – third reading – which is expected later today.

However, no Conservatives voted against the legislation at second reading – despite similar warnings from the right of the party which had appeared to put its fate in jeopardy beforehand.

Former prime minister Liz Truss, former ministers Suella Braverman and Sir Simon Clarke and former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith were also among those to back the amendments.

Labour MP Chris Bryant is sceptical of Nadine Dorries’ theory that the Tories plan to replace Rishi Sunak with Lord Cameron after the Rwanda rebellion.

She had told Talk TV: “It’s no coincidence that David Cameron has suddenly been popped into the Lords.”

A senior rebel told Sky News Beth Rigby that they still believed Rishi Sunak would win the crunch Rwanda vote later today despite their uprising. They told her: “The question is what does it profit a Prime Minister to gain a Bill but, once and for all, lose the public’s trust on the boats and migration?”

Former prime minister Liz Truss, former ministers Suella Braverman and Sir Simon Clarke and former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith were also among those to back the amendments.

Speaking after his resignation as Tory deputy chair, Lee Anderson told GB News: “I don’t think I could carry on in my role when I fundamentally disagree with the Bill. I can’t be in a position to vote for something I don’t believe in.”

He said he believed the Bill “could work” and insisted the Prime Minister still had “100%” of his support.

Some 68 MPs, including 60 Tories, voted in favour of changes to the Safety of Rwanda Bill put forward by Conservative backbencher Sir Bill, which seek to ensure UK and international law cannot be used to block a person being removed to Rwanda.

Squabbling over the Rwanda bill has once again highlighted the remarkable number of factions within the parliamentary Conservative Party. Some in Westminster refer to the major groups as the “five families” of the party, though the number of sub-groups has mushroomed, particularly on the hard right. The most high profile in recent years has been the European Research Group, chaired by Mark Francois, which made menacing demands of Rishi Sunak about his proposed legislation, albeit they were pretty much ignored. All have one thing in common: a taste for plotting and intrigue amounting to addiction.

If the Conservatives go into opposition, these disputatious parties-within-a-party will become even more fractious; they are both symptom and cause of the splits that have so disfigured the Conservatives. Tory groups used to be dining clubs of like-minded chums (such as the “Blue Chips” in the 1980s – John Major and Chris Patten) or earnest researchers, such as the Bow Group or the Centre for Policy Studies. Nowadays, the politics are much more raw.

Here is a partial field guide to the different species of Tory MP…

Priti Patel has issued a plea for Conservatives to stick together ahead of a crunch vote on Rwanda policy.

The former home secretary bemoaned the fact the European Court of Human Rights could issue a last-ditch Rule 39 injunction blocking a plane to Rwanda from taking off on 14 June 2022.

She wrote: “Eighteen months since we were forced to leave the plane on the runway, we must now come together as a party to pass this Bill. But we must have the reassurance that all potential roadblocks are removed, including the civil service blob.

“Our partnership with Rwanda may be a tough and innovative approach, but it will work. As a former Home Secretary, I am convinced that it is the only way to ensure that people know that if they come here illegally, they will not be able to stay.”

Tory rebel Sir John Hayes said about the rebellion: “The numbers speak for themselves. It was a really impressive number.”

He added: “I think we got a very significant proportion of the backbenchers.”

Asked if he would vote against the Government, he said: “We’ve got another day’s debate tomorrow, haven’t we – so let’s listen to that debate and deal with things as they occur rather than before they occur.”

Some 68 MPs, including 60 Tories, voted in favour of changes to the Safety of Rwanda Bill put forward by Conservative backbencher Sir Bill, which seek to ensure UK and international law cannot be used to block a person being removed to Rwanda.

Yvette Cooper called the rebellion over Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill which saw three resignations and 60 vote against the Government “total Tory chaos”.

She said it showed how the prime minister is “so weak he’s lost control of [the] asylum system, border security and the whole Tory party.”

Miriam Cates, co-chair of the New Conservatives, told Sky News that the Rwanda bill has too many loopholes.

She said: “There’s clearly strong feeling among a number of people in this party who want the bill toughened up.

“Let’s remember why we want this toughened up – it’s just because we want it to work.

“The prime minister has said that he will stop the boats, that he will do whatever it takes.

“We very much hope that the prime minister will see the strength of feeling and accept our amendments, or put forward his own equivalent ones.”

Asked if she will vote against the bill if it is not toughened up, Ms Cates says: “I’m prepared to, but I can only speak for myself.”

Senior Tory MPs were among 60 to rebel against Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan, backing amendments that sought to toughen up the bill.

These include former prime minister Liz Truss, sacked home secretary Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees-Mog, former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Robert Jenrick.