Rishi sees off Tory rebels who wanted to sink his migrants Bill

RISHI Sunak warded off a major rebellion over the small boats crisis last night.

Ministers secured a ceasefire with Tory backbenchers who had threatened to force the Prime Minister out of Downing Street over the issue.

Veterans including Sir William Cash and Sir John Hayes demanded a series of tough additions to the Illegal Migration Bill – the key plank of Mr Sunak’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’.

Last night immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he had listened to the rebels and promised to ‘engage constructively’ with them as the legislation passes through the Commons.

Up to 60 Tory backbenchers had been threatening to vote against the Bill in the Commons yesterday.

Mr Jenrick – in a statement agreed with the rebels – said: ‘I have listened to my honourable friends and I recognise the positive purpose of the amendments they have tabled. The Government takes their arguments seriously and I can undertake that the Home Secretary and I will engage construc

‘Hazardous and illegal journeys’

tively with them before report stage with a view to ensuring that the Bill does all that is necessary to meet our shared aim to stop the boats.’

Earlier, the rebels said they were prepared to take the Prime Minister down over the Channel crisis.

A spokesman warned Mr Sunak would be looking for a new job by Christmas if he failed to toughen the immigration Bill to their satisfaction.

He added that backbench rebels wanted the Government to stop Channel crossings by the end of the year – even though Mr Sunak gave no specific deadline when he launched his fivepoint plan in December.

‘Unless there is a credible plan by report stage, the PM will be emeritus professor of government at Stanford University by December,’ the source said. ‘There will be a “coronation showdown” before Commons goes into recess on May 3.

‘Backbenchers have interpreted the PM’s pledge to stop the boats as a commitment to do so by the end of the year, just like the economic pledges he made in his five-point plan. Nothing else will be good enough.

‘The Government must adopt all the backbench amendments toughening up the immigration Bill, or come up with credible alternatives, or there will be a massive showdown.’

Key rebel Sir William said in the Commons, as the Bill entered committee stage, that his proposed changes were designed to tackle ‘judicial activism’.

He said there was a risk that the proposed law would still allow lawyers and judges to block the removal of foreign nationals to Rwanda or another safe country. An amendment tabled by Sir William would prevent judges granting judicial reviews or other interventions that stop a Home Office deportation.

‘If the courts intervene in unexpected ways this removes the deterrence and the whole scheme breaks down, along with our ability to control our own borders,’ Sir William told MPs. ‘We do not want or need lawyers and judges to invent new blocks on removal with judicial activism.’

The MP for Stone in Staffordshire added: ‘ The number of backbenchers who are supporting my own and our constructive amendments is growing. This Bill to stop the boats is both legally and politically necessary because illegal migration is out of control, some part of which is because there’s a failure to distinguish between genuine refugees and others who are illegal and economic migrants.

‘We must stop people making these hazardous and lethal journeys in small boats.

‘We must stop the criminality, we must stop illegal migration and the cost of this and the impact of this on our local and national resources.’

He added that rebels had asked ministers to ‘engage with us constructively’. In exchange, they would delay pressing their amendments to a vote – with the risk of a Government defeat – until the Bill entered the later stages of its passage through the Commons.

Fellow Tory rebel Danny Kruger said he now looked forward to working with ministers ‘to make the Bill watertight’.

The truce between ministers and the rebels means the next crunch point will be when the Bill enters the report stage, expected toward the end of next month.

Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s immigration spokesman, branded the Bill ‘entirely counterproductive’ and said Labour would oppose it.