Peers called to 'calm down' and allow Rwanda Bill to clear Parliament

I I don’t really feel that there’s anything terribly useful I can say at this stage. I’ve heard all this. I’ve heard all, I’ve heard all this before. The the honourable member speaks from the front bench is simply repeating what he said before, and not only that, perfectly apparent that these amendments are just wrecking amendments. And thirdly, the fact is he doesn’t even address the arguments about international law when he knows perfectly well because he can’t answer my questions on this. We have a dualist system and if we decide to legislate in our own legislative way, in our own courts, in our in our own parliament, the courts themselves will implement that legislation. So the real question now is let’s get this bill done, let’s get the House of Lords there to calm down a bit and let us also at the same time wait for what is inevitably going to be another claim. And then see what the judgments of the Supreme Court is on the wording, providing it as clear and unambiguous of this bill. That’s all I need to say. I may come back again, however. If there’s another insistence by the Lords on these ridiculous amendments. It’s just over 2 years to the day almost since the Rwanda scheme was first announced from that despatch box, so it would be remiss of us not to take stock of progress to date. Well, hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers money have been sent to the Rwandan government. Civil servants, courts, parliamentarians and journalists have spent countless hours, days and weeks discussing and writing about it. And not one, not 2. But three Home Secretaries have been flown down to Kigali. But apart from that, I have to say there’s not a great deal to report. Madam Deputy Speaker, the boats have kept coming, the backlog has kept growing and the people smugglers are still laughing all the way to the bank. Two years of headline chasing gimmicks. 2 years of pursuing a policy that is fundamentally unworkable, unaffordable and unlawful. 2 years of flogging this dead horse. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am an inveterate optimist, so I truly believe that one day the benches opposite will come to understand that hard graft and common sense are always more effective than the sugar rush of a tabloid front page. And they will come to accept that they should have adopted Labour’s comprehensive plan to restore order to our border by redirecting the vast amounts of money set aside for the Rwandan government into a new cross-border Police unit. And a new security partnership with Europol to smash the criminal gangs upstream.