MPs have rejected proposals to ban foreign criminals claiming their right to a family life to avoid deportation. The plans were defeated despite almost 100 MPs, many of them thought to be Tory backbenchers, voting against the government.
MPs have rejected proposals to ban foreign criminals claiming their right to a family life to avoid deportation by 241 to 97 votes.
Nearly 100 MPs, many of them thought to be Tory backbenchers, voted in favour of giving ministers rather than judges the final say over whether deportation would breach the human rights of foreign criminals.
The immigration debate is underway in earnest in the Commons, exposing the rift which cuts through the Conservative Party in Westminster.
The Immigration Bill was shunted into the sidings over Christmas while ministers worked out how to head off a rebellion they saw coming.