Just before MPs were due to vote on the Rwanda bill at second reading last month, Conservative whips called party moderates in to see them one by one.
Their message was bleak. The government had just unexpectedly lost a vote on the infected blood scandal and, with dozens of rightwingers threatening to rebel over the Rwanda plan, the whips warned they might lose this one, too. If that happened, they said, it could be the end of Rishi Sunak’s premiership.
“They were worried they no longer had control of the numbers and were not sure they were going to win,” said one of those involved in the last-minute talks. “They told us we had to vote with the government, or it might just fall.”
