Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda deportation legislation survived a right-wing Conservative rebellion after would-be rebels announced they would not vote down an unchanged Bill.
The Prime Minister saw the Safety of Rwanda Bill pass its third reading in the House of Commons by a majority of 44 on Wednesday evening.
More than 60 Tory MPs had earlier supported an amendment designed to toughen the draft law, voting for a proposal designed to allow UK ministers to ignore emergency injunctions by European judges attempting to stop asylum seeker deportation flights to east Africa from taking off.
But Downing Street went into the third reading vote knowing it had seen off a potentially damaging defeat after the majority of rebels signalled they would back it even without any amendments being accepted.
The Bill will now move to the House of Lords where it is expected to face serious opposition.
Earlier in the debate, Thérèse Coffey hit out at Yvette Cooper for getting the name of the country wrong during an impassioned speech.
“The shadow home secretary can’t even get the name of the country right, talking about the Kigali government”, she said.
Kigali is the capital of Rwanda and where the government is based.
Watch the clip in full below:
