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Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resign as Tory deputy chairs over Rwanda bill
Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith have resigned as Conservative party deputy chairs, Pippa Crerar reports.
BREAKING: Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith have quit as Tory party deputy chairs – Tory sources
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) January 16, 2024
They are both backing the Bill Cash amendment being voted on now. See 5.58pm.
(There is a third Tory deputy chair, Nickie Aiken, who has not resigned.)
Key events
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Closing summary
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Third Tory MP resigns over Rwanda amendments
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58 MPs back rebel Tory amendment tabled by Robert Jenrick further limiting rights to challenge deportation orders
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MPs vote on Robert Jenrick’s amendment to further limit ability of individual asylum seekers to challenge deportation orders
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60 Tory MPs rebelled on Cash amendment, division list shows – 58 voting for it, plus 2 tellers
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68 MPs back rebel Tory amendment to add notwithstanding clause to bill
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Anderson and Clarke-Smith tell Sunak in their resignation letter he has their ‘100% support’
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Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resign as Tory deputy chairs over Rwanda bill
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MPs vote on Bill Cash’s amendment to add notwithstanding clause to bill
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MPs begin voting on Rwanda bill amendments
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Home Office minister Michael Tomlinson starts speech winding up Rwanda debate
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Jane Stevenson, a government PPS, says she is backing rebel amendments
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Simon Clarke claims, if mainstream parties do not stop the boats, extremists will fill gap
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Lady chief justice says it’s for her, not government, to decide if more judges available for asylum appeals, in rebuke to No 10
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UK withdrawal from ECHR would have ‘dramatic consequences’ for people in Northern Ireland, says senior MEP
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Labour condemns Rwanda policy as unaffordable, unworkable and unlawful
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Jenrick says Sunak should accept rebel Tory amendments because they all comply with international law
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Robert Jenrick tells MPs he does not accept government’s claim Rwanda would not accept tougher bill
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SNP’s Alison Thewliss opens debate on Rwanda bill saying it’s ‘irredeemably awful’ and won’t work
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MPs debate on Rwanda bill
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Alex Chalk says allocating more courts and judges for asylum appeal will allow ‘vast majority’ of cases to be processed quickly
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No 10 rejects claim from UNHCR that its Rwanda policy remains incompatible with international refugee law
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Tory papers mostly back Sunak, not hardline rebel MPs, ahead of key votes on Rwanda bill
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Labour needs record swing to win general election on new boundaries, analysis suggests
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Gove says he is ‘pretty sure’ Lee Anderson will still be Tory deputy chair at next election
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Boris Johnson backs Tory rebels trying to strengthen Rwanda bill, saying it should be ‘as robust as possible’
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Leading Tory Rwanda rebel says PM’s plan for extra judges shows bill will not stop appeals
Closing summary
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Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resigned as deputy chairs of the Conservative party after defying Rishi Sunak by backing rightwing challenges to harden up his flagship Rwanda deportation bill.
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About 60 Tory rebel MPs – including the former home secretary Suella Braverman and the former prime minister Liz Truss – backed the series of amendments tabled by the veteran Tory Sir Bill Cash and Robert Jenrick when the bill returned to the Commons on Tuesday.
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Soon after Anderson and Clarke-Smith rendered their resignations, Jane Stevenson resigned as a parliamentary private secretary to Kemi Badenoch in the Department for Business and Trade. Stevenson had spoken strongly in favour of the amendments: “All of us are united in wanting a bill that works,” she said.
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As the bill goes in for its third reading, the question now is how the rebel Tory MPs will vote tomorrow – there is a chance that the bill may fail yet again because some in the party feel it is not strong enough.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, called the night’s events “total Tory chaos” that displayed how the prime minister is “so weak he’s lost control of [the] asylum system, border security and the whole Tory party.”
Total Tory chaos over their failing Rwanda scheme
A scheme Rishi Sunak tried to cancel
That Home Secretary thinks is batshit
And 58 Tory MPs say won’t work
Yet taxpayer paying £400m price
PM so weak he’s lost control of asylum system, border security & the whole Tory Party
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) January 16, 2024
The Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael told LBC’s Henry Riley that the prime minister had been “embarrassed by his own MPs”.
“Sunak’s Rwanda scheme just won’t work – even the deputy chairmen of his party know it,” Carmichael said, referring to tonight’s resignations of Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith after supporting amendments to the Rwanda bill. Jane Stevenson also resigned after voting in favour of the amendments.
“If the PM can’t settle squabbles in his own party, how can he be expected to run the country?” Carmichael said.
🟠 Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael on Tory resignations
“Sunak’s Rwanda scheme just won’t work – even the Deputy Chairmen of his party know it
He’s “been embarrassed by his own MPs
If the PM can’t settle squabbles in his own party, how can he be expected to run the country?”
— Henry Riley (@HenryRiley1) January 16, 2024
Here’s more from the joint resignation letter from deputy chairs Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith:
“Our support for the party and this Government remains as strong as ever and this is why we are so passionate about making this legislation work,” they wrote.
Like Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, who resigned from their positions in the party earlier tonight, Jane Stevenson reiterated her support of the prime minister and the Rwanda policy in general ahead of rendering her own resignation.
“All of us are united in wanting a bill that works and allows the prime minister to deliver on his promise,” she said. “I absolutely trust the prime minister’s commitment to ensuring we stop the boats. I believe the Rwanda policy can be a deterrent.”
Third Tory MP resigns over Rwanda amendments
Jane Stevenson joined Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith tonight in resigning from her role in the Conservative party after voting for the Rwanda amendments.
Stevenson resigned as a PPS in the Department for Business and Trade.
I have offered my resignation as a PPS this evening. I don’t consider my votes to have been anti-Govt, but they do warrant resignation. In the Chamber earlier I paid tribute to @RishiSunak‘s work so far & welcomed his commitment made in Rome in Dec to lead talks on 🌍 frameworks
— Jane Stevenson MP (@Jane_Stevenson_) January 16, 2024
The Labour amendment has been defeated by 336 votes to 262.
Andrew Sparrow
MPs are now voting on a Labour amendment, new clause 6, that would impose tighter conditions regarding whether Rwanda is considered safe. As Labour puts it in its explanatory notes, the amendment would place “the monitoring committee for the Rwanda treaty on a statutory basis, and places conditions on when the classification of Rwanda as ‘safe’ can be suspended in accordance with material conditions and/or non-compliance with obligations under the Rwanda treaty”.
This will be the last vote of the night.
My colleague Vivian Ho is taking over now.
The government has won the vote on clause 4 by 330 votes to 55 – a majority of 275. Clause 4 remains part of the bill.
MPs are now voting on whether to keep clause 4 as part of the bill. Clause 4 is the one that allows individual appeals against deportation orders in some circumstances.
58 MPs back rebel Tory amendment tabled by Robert Jenrick further limiting rights to challenge deportation orders
The Robert Jenrick amendment (see 6.33pm) has been defeated by 525 votes to 58 – a majority of 467.
That is 10 fewer MPs voting for this rebel amendment than voted for the last one. (See 6.14pm.)
MPs vote on Robert Jenrick’s amendment to further limit ability of individual asylum seekers to challenge deportation orders
MPs are now voting on amendment 19 – one of the many tabled by Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister. This one would, in the words of the explanatory statement he provided alongside it, “remove the ability of individuals to block their own removal through suspensive claims and to limit such claims to rare situations where there is bad faith on the part of decision-makers in relation to decisions as to medical fitness to travel”.
In other words, it would make it significantly harder for individual asylum seekers to challenge deportation orders than it already is under the bill as drafted by the government.
The government won the third vote, that clause 2 should “stand part” (see 6.18pm), by 331 votes to 262 – a majority of 69.
This one was basically a straight Tory v opposition contest.
60 Tory MPs rebelled on Cash amendment, division list shows – 58 voting for it, plus 2 tellers
Sixty Tory MPs rebelled against the government on the Bill Cash amendment, the division list shows. There were 58 Conservatives voting against, and Miriam Cates and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg acted as tellers.
Two former Tory MPs who are now independents, Scott Benton and Andrew Bridgen, also voted for this.
And the eight DUP MPs were in favour as well.
MPs are now voting on whether clause 2, which says Rwanda should be treated as a safe country for deportation purposes, should remain in the bill (or “stand part”, in the terminology).
68 MPs back rebel Tory amendment to add notwithstanding clause to bill
The Bill Cash amendment has been defeated by 529 votes to 68 – a majority of 461.
The DUP was planning to vote for this amendment, so eight of the 68 votes are probably their votes.
The other 60 votes are almost certainly all Conservative MPs – or independent MPs who used to be Tory but who have had the whip suspended for disciplinary reasons.
Anderson and Clarke-Smith tell Sunak in their resignation letter he has their ‘100% support’
Sam Coates has posted on X the joint resignation letter from Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith.
Their letter is about as conciliatory as you can imagine, in the circumstances. They say they are resigning because they want to support the amendments but they say they offer Rishi Sunak their “100% support” and that their support for the government “remains as strong as ever”.
(But he does not have their 100% support, because they signed the rebel amendment put to the vote just now.)
Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resign as Tory deputy chairs over Rwanda bill
Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith have resigned as Conservative party deputy chairs, Pippa Crerar reports.
BREAKING: Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith have quit as Tory party deputy chairs – Tory sources
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) January 16, 2024
They are both backing the Bill Cash amendment being voted on now. See 5.58pm.
(There is a third Tory deputy chair, Nickie Aiken, who has not resigned.)
MPs vote on Bill Cash’s amendment to add notwithstanding clause to bill
MPs are now voting on amendment 10 – an amendment tabled by Sir Bill Cash that will add a “notwithstanding clause” to the bill. This would allow the government to go ahead with deportations to Rwanda regardless of what the European convention on human rights, and other international law, says.
Cash defended it in the debate earlier. (See 2.42pm.)
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