Boris Johnson has suffered a string of fresh defeats in the House of Lords over his controversial immigration reforms.
Defiant peers forced the Nationality and Borders Bill back to Commons after winning a series of votes over the hotly disputed legislation.
Home Secretary Priti Patel was spotted in the House of Lords tonight as the Government tried to ram through its immigration and asylum reforms before the Queen's Speech on May 10.
A Labour source in the Lords said they were hitting a "brick wall" with Ms Patel on the "unworkable" legislation, which provides the legal framework for contentious plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The bill is stuck in "ping pong" between the Tory-led Commons and the Lords, with only days left until the end of the parliamentary session. It has already been knocked back three times.
Tonight, peers again backed steps aimed at preventing asylum seekers being treated differently based on how they reached the UK, and renewed their demand that applicants be allowed to work if no decision had been taken on their claim after six months.
The Lords also supported measures to force the bill to comply with the UK's international commitments to refugees.
But the Government narrowly saw off a bid to impose strict conditions on offshoring asylum and to strip out a plan to make it a crime to knowingly arrive in the UK without permission.
A Labour proposal to limit the removal of protections from potential victims of modern slavery was also rejected.
A Labour source in the Lords said: "We’re clearly hitting a brick wall with the Home Secretary who appears overly focused on ramming this legislation through and ignoring carefully thought through advice from peers across the House about why aspects of this bill are unworkable."
Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford defended the need for the reforms contained in the Bill.
The Tory frontbencher said: "The world is facing a crisis of migration. An estimated 80 million people are displaced by conflicts and instability around the world. Others seek to move in search of improved economic opportunities.
"Challenges need solutions, not just complaints about what is proposed."
She added: "Breaking the business model of the people smugglers and managing the flow of people entering this country is the one of the most humane things we can do.
"The measures in this Bill will allow us to save lives and ensure that we can effectively provide the support and care for those who need it most."
But Green Party peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb accused the Government of "becoming a trafficking gang".
She said: "The Government is actually going to take people abroad and leave them there.
"They are taking them to a country that has human rights abuses. It is cruel."
Former Brexit Party MEP Baroness Fox of Buckley said she was "always nervous about outsourcing to poor African countries that need the money".
"It seems unsavoury and cowardly," she added.
Conservative peer and former immigration minister Lord Kirkhope of Harrogate said he remained opposed to offshoring asylum seekers.
He told the Lords: "I believe it is inappropriate, I believe it is dubious in legal terms, I believe it will be very expensive and I do not believe it will have the effect of deterring the traffickers, who should be dealt with in a harsh manner."
The bill will now return to the Commons for consideration.
Attempts to force the Government to cap the amount that leaseholders would pay for safety repairs at £250 have also been rejected in the Lords.
The Government victory clears the way for the legislation to conclude its passage through Parliament ahead of prorogation.
Peers were due to vote late into the night on the Health & Care Bill and the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill.
