Rishi Sunak vows 'nothing will stand in our way' of migrant flights

Five people are believed to have died in the latest Channel migrant tragedy today, hours after Rishi Sunak vowed to push on with deportation flights to Rwanda.

Hundreds set off for the UK from France today, taking advantage of calm weather the day after Parliament finally approved a new law to send arrivals to East Africa.

Ministers have said that one of their prime concerns is to prevent people smugglers putting people on the water in unseaworthy boats.

Before the tragedy struck, Mr Sunak this morning said he would let nothing ‘stand in our way’, with hopes flights may start in July.

The first asylum seekers are expected to be rounded up and detained within days after a political tussle over the controversial law finally ended in the early hours of this morning.

The House of Lords had been engaged in an extended tussle over the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill on Monday, sending it back to the Commons five times in a bid to secure changes.

But they relented just after midnight, paving the way for it to become law and allow delayed flights to start in July, in a move Tories hope will boost the party’s hopes of being re-elected later this year.

But the news did not appear to have filtered across the Channel, with more migrants boats filmed leaving the French coast near Dunkirk this morning heading for Britain.

Told of the deaths, Illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘It is absolutely chilling to hear that. We have had fatalities now in the Channel for nine consecutive months.’

The Prime Minister has said ‘nothing will stand in our way’ of getting flights off the ground after the Government’s Rwanda deportation plan passed through Parliament

In a statement this morning the PM, who is in Poland, said: ‘The passing of this legislation will allow us to do that and make it very clear that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.

‘Our focus is to now get flights off the ground, and I am clear that nothing will stand in our way of doing that and saving lives.’

The unelected chamber ended the deadlock after MPs rejected a requirement that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until the secretary of state, having consulted an independent monitoring body, made a statement to Parliament to that effect.

The Government said the Lords amendment was ‘almost identical’ to the previous ones overturned by MPs.

In his statement on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak said: ‘The passing of this landmark legislation is not just a step forward but a fundamental change in the global equation on migration.

‘We introduced the Rwanda Bill to deter vulnerable migrants from making perilous crossings and break the business model of the criminal gangs who exploit them.’

Illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson said the Government was prepared for ‘inevitable’ legal challenges to the Rwanda scheme.

He told Times Radio: ‘It’s inevitable. I’m afraid that there will be challenges.. There are people who don’t like this policy… the Labour lords, as we saw last night and the Labour Party, there are people who are determined to do whatever it takes to try and stop this policy from working.’

Pictured: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaving Parliament at 11.30pm last night

MPs rejected a requirement that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until the secretary of state, having consulted an independent monitoring body

The Government said the Lords amendment was ‘almost identical’ to the previous ones overturned by MPs. Pictured: Migrants on a small inflatable boat in the Channel, striving to reach Dover

In a video posted to social media, Home Secretary James Cleverly said the Bill ‘will become law within days’.

He said: ‘The Act will prevent people from abusing the law by using false human rights claims to block removals.

‘And it makes clear that the UK Parliament is sovereign, giving Government the power to reject interim blocking measures imposed by European courts.

‘I promised to do what was necessary to clear the path for the first flight.

‘That’s what we have done.

‘Now we’re working day in and day out to get flights off the ground.’

Earlier in the upper House, the opposition did not press its demand for the Bill to include an exemption from removal for Afghan nationals who assisted British troops after what critics hailed as a concession.

A Home Office minister said the Government will not send those who are eligible under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) to Rwanda.

The new law aims to clear the way to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to Kigali.

Peers admitted defeat in their desperate efforts to water down the legislation just before midnight, with one describing the moment as a ‘funeral’

Labour’s Des Browne decided not to push his amendment after a concession from the government

The last remaining tweak, tabled by Lord Anderson of Ipswich, had called for an independent monitoring commission to declare the African state safe before Channel migrants could be sent there

The fifth round was the last, with the House of Commons wiping out the amendment

In bizarre scenes earlier the Lords was briefly plunged into darkness thanks to a power cut

Rishi Sunak told a press conference yesterday in Downing Street he was ready to make MPs and peers sit through the night to break the impasse on the crucial legislation

Mr Sunak told peers his patience had run out, with his pledge to ‘stop the boats’ on the line. Pictured: Migrants crossing the Channel last month

The legislation and a treaty with Rwanda are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled scheme after the Supreme Court ruled the plan was unlawful.

As well as compelling judges to regard the east African country as safe, it would give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.

The Prime Minister says the policy will act as a deterrent to migrants attempting to make the perilous journey across the world’s busiest shipping lane.

In a statement, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called the Bill ‘an extortionately expensive gimmick rather than a serious plan to tackle dangerous boat crossings’.

‘The Rwanda scheme will cost more than half a billion pounds for just 300 people, less than one per cent of asylum seekers here in the UK – and there is no plan for the 99 per cent,’ she said.

‘Instead of spending £2million per asylum seeker on this failing scheme they should be putting that money into boosting our border security instead, that is Labour’s practical plan.

Planes have already been booked and migrants will soon be detained ahead of deportation, he revealed (pictured: staff boarding a plane which was set to be the first to transport migrants to Rwanda in June 2022)

Mr Sunak insisted he was ‘not going to let a foreign court’ block the deportations, after the European Court of Human Rights (pictured) in Strasbourg grounded the first planned flight two years ago in a late-night ruling

‘This is the third new law the Tories have passed on Channel crossings in two years, each one has made the chaos worse and even senior Tory MPs don’t believe this third law will work.

‘As former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has said this is just a plan to get a few symbolic flights off before an election.

‘Now the new law has passed, the Conservatives will immediately sign another £50 million cheque to Rwanda on top of the £200 million sent so far, even though not a single asylum seeker has yet been sent.

‘The Conservatives should drop this eye-wateringly expensive election stunt and instead adopt Labour’s practical plan boost our border security with new cross-border police and new counter terror style powers to crack down on the criminal gangs, and a new Returns and Enforcement Unit to remove those who have no right to be here.’

Earlier on Monday, Rishi Sunak blamed Labour peers for holding up the Bill, as he acknowledged he will miss his self-imposed spring target for getting the Rwanda scheme off the ground.

Having completed its parliamentary passage, the Bill now goes for royal assent.

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