Rishi Sunak's Rwanda headaches grow with Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson 'set to join' 60-strong revolt by right wingers in crunch votes - after leadership rival Kemi Badenoch warned new law is not tough enough

More than 50 Tory MPs have backed right-wing amendments to the Rwanda Bill

Rishi Sunak is facing an uphill struggle to hold the Tories together amid a growing revolt over his Rwanda deportation flights law.

Ahead of two crunch days of votes in the Commons starting tomorrow, more than 50 Tory MPs have publicly backed right-wing amendments to the Rwanda Bill.

Rebel sources claims their number includes Lee Anderson, the Conservative Party deputy chairman – whose vote would carry heavy symbolic weight and heap huge pressure on the PM.

At the same time Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch, seen as a future Tory leadership frontrunner. has privately warned the PM that the law, as it stands is not tough enough and needs strengthening.

However, Tory moderates have waned again that any moves by the party Right to make the legislation more restrictive would be opposed.

Mr Sunak said he is ‘talking to all my colleagues’ when asked about the prospect of a rebellion.

‘I know everyone is frustrated – I’m frustrated about the situation – and they want to see an end to the legal merry-go-round,’ he told Broadcasters on a visit to Essex.

Rebel sources claims their number includes Lee Anderson, the Conservative Party deputy chairman – whose vote would carry heavy symbolic weight and heap huge pressure on the PM. They are pictured together earlier this month.

At the same time Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch, seen as a future Tory leadership frontrunner. has privately warned the PM that the law, as it stands is not tough enough and needs strengthening.

‘I’m confident that the Bill we have got is the toughest that anyone has ever seen and it will resolve this issue once and for all.’

The Tory leader said he was ‘determined to get this new legislation onto the statute book so we can get our Rwanda scheme up and running’.

He said ‘good progress’ had been made on his pledge to stop the boats before adding: ‘In order to finish the job, we do need a deterrent like Rwanda and that is why I’m trying to do everything I can to get this Bill – which by the way is the toughest piece of migration legislation that Parliament has ever seen – on to the statute books.’

It came as ministers scrambled to cool Tory panic today after a shock poll showed Rishi Sunak is heading for a 1997-style election wipeout.

A huge survey of 14,000 voters found the Conservatives are on course to lose nearly 200 seats at this year’s general election – with Keir Starmer racking up a 120-seat majority.

That would represent the biggest collapse in support for a governing party since 1906, with an 11.5 per cent swing to Labour.

And the YouGov research adds credence to growing alarm about the impact of Reform UK on the result. The Nigel Farage-backed party is projected to contribute to the Labour landslide by taking enough votes to cost 96 Tories their constituencies – but not enough to secure a single MP of its own.

Ms Badenoch, the Business Secretary, is understood to have called for asylum seekers to be prevented from lodging individual legal appeals against their removals to Kigali.

As first reported by The Times, she warned Liam Booth-Smith, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, of the consequences of failing to block individual legal challenges last month.

YouGov calculated the figures from the huge sample using the Multi-Level Regression and Poststratification (MRP) method, which maps characteristics of specific constituencies

More than 50 Tory MPs have publicly backed right-wing amendments to the Rwanda Bill, which will return to the Commons on Tuesday.

The right-wing amendments gaining support among backbenchers were tabled by Robert Jenrick, who resigned as immigration minister over the legislation, and veteran Tory Sir Bill Cash.

They are seeking to disapply international law from the Bill and curtail asylum seekers’ rights to appeal against flights to Kigali.

The severity of the small boat crossings which the policy is seeking to tackle was reinforced on Sunday when five more people died trying to cross the Channel from France.

Mr Anderson has not commented publicly but rebel sources said they had been told he will back the amendments brought by Sir Bill and Mr Jenrick if they are selected.

But any attempt by the Prime Minister to placate them would be met by opposition from Tory moderates.

The amendments are unlikely to pass as they will not get Labour support but the real test will come at the third reading when rebels may vote against the Bill entirely.

Three leaders of groups on the Tory right, Mark Francois, Sir John Hayes and Danny Kruger, have said they would oppose the bill if Mr Sunak does not bow to their demands.

The former home secretary and rival to Mr Sunak, Suella Braverman, has said she will this time vote against the Bill if there are ‘no improvements’, having previously abstained.

If rebels were successful, blocking the Prime Minister’s flagship Bill would trigger fresh chaos – something that may make opponents toe the line to let it pass.

Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland has said he would not back the Bill if the changes are made.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: ‘I’m going to consider the position very carefully to see what I do at third reading.

‘I can say this, if any of the amendments that are promoted by some other colleagues pass then there’s no way I can vote for this Bill at third reading.

‘I think already we are pushing the edges of comity – that is that mutual respect between Parliament and the courts – very, very aggressively indeed.’

Mr Sunak has argued that moving a further ‘inch’ on the Bill would risk the Rwandans quitting the deal.