A summary of today's developments
The government suffered seven defeats in the House of Lords on Wednesday over its contentious Rwanda bill. Peers voted in favour of amendments including to exempt people from deportation to Rwanda if they have assisted British troops and to exempt victims of modern slavery. The Lords also backed amendments for age assessments tests on unaccompanied children to be carried out by local authorities, applying the balance of probabilities burden of proof. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, believes the government would bring the Rwanda Bill back next week to “get on with it” if it were ready to implement its deportation scheme. Cooper said: “The half a billion pound Rwanda scheme is a failing farce, which will only cover less than 1% of asylum arrivals.”
According to Katy Balls from the Spectator, Rishi Sunak told Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee: The PM said: “We are in the fight of our lives. This battle will define us, when the going got tough, when the polls were against us did we dig deep and fight or did we turn in on ourselves?”
The Department of Health and Social Care published its tobacco and vapes bill, the legislation that will very gradually ban smoking by ensuring that children turning 15 this year or younger will never legally be able to be sold tobacco.
Vaughan Gething used his first speech in the Senedd after being formally nominated as first minister of Wales to accuse the UK government of “unprecedented hostility” to devolution. He declared: “In recent years we have pushed the boundaries of what is possible with devolution. We did it, for example, to keep Wales safe [during Covid]. “But in that same period, we have seen unprecedented hostility towards democratic Welsh devolution from a UK government determined to undermine, frustrate and bypass the Welsh government and this Senedd. As well as leaving Wales with less say over less money, it is deeply corrosive, wasteful and undemocratic.”
Updated
Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda deportation bill is expected to be put on hold until at least next month after the House of Lords inflicted seven defeats on Wednesday.
The safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill, which aims to block Strasbourg from halting the removal of asylum seekers to east Africa, is not expected to return to the Commons until after the Easter break.
Any delay could make it increasingly difficult to fulfil the prime minister’s plan to see flights take off for Kigali by the spring.
The legislation is central to the Conservative government’s pledge to “stop the boats”. Ministers have claimed that the bill will deter people from travelling across the Channel.
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