PM Sunak faces Conservative rebellion in British Parliament

London: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces rebellion from senior lawmakers in his Conservative Party over his stalled plan to send asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda, a controversial and expensive policy that the British leader has made central to his attempt to win an election this year.

To do that he needs to unite his fractious party, which trails far behind the Labour opposition in opinion polls. But the liberal and authoritarian wings of the Conservatives always uneasy allies are at loggerheads over the Rwanda plan.

Moderates worry the policy is too extreme, while many on the party’s powerful right wing think it doesn’t go far enough.

In a blow to Sunak, two deputy chairmen of the Conservative Party say they will vote to toughen up the government’s flagship Safety of Rwanda Bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith announced they will back amendments seeking to close down asylum-seekers’ avenues of appeal against deportation to Rwanda.

“I want this legislation to be as strong as possible,” Clarke-Smith wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. More than 60 Tory lawmakers, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, support amendments to toughen the legislation, and some say they will vote against the bill as a whole if it is not strengthened. Along with opposition party votes, that might be enough to kill the legislation. That would be a major blow to Sunak’s authority and potentially fatal to the Rwanda plan.

Sunak insists the bill goes as far as the government can because Rwanda will pull out of its agreement to rehouse asylum-seekers if the UK breaks international law.

Conservative moderates, meanwhile, worry the bill already flirts with breaking international law and say they will oppose it if it gets any tougher.