Gove defends ‘robust’ Rwanda legislation as Sunak dealt blow from Tory right

Shehab Khan reports.

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda legislation has been defended by Cabinet minister Michael Gove as “tough and robust” after a fresh blow was dealt by a legal assessment for the Tory right.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove said he is “confident” of Conservative support for the plans and insisted they are not “contemplating” a general election if they lose Tuesday’s vote.

He said they will “listen” to the arguments made by MPs after Sir Bill Cash signalled his legal assessment for the Tory right concludes the Bill is not fit for purpose.

The veteran Conservative, who chaired legal examination being waited on by hardliners, suggested the Bill is not “sufficiently watertight”.

Cash will present the findings of his so-called “star chamber” of lawyers, before they discuss how to vote on the Prime Minister’s Bill on Tuesday.

The European Research Group of hardline Brexiteers will first hold a summit on the measure to revive the asylum policy with other factions on the Conservative right on Monday.

The more moderate wing of One Nation Conservatives will hold a separate evening meeting in Parliament before releasing a statement on their judgment.

MPs meeting to give their verdicts of Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda legislation is being seen as a major test for his leadership.

The prime minister is relying on the legislation to revive his asylum plans after they were deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court over concerns for refugees’ safety.

MPs on the Conservative left are also weighing up whether they can back it, and a defeat will deal a major blow to Mr Sunak’s credibility in office.

Mr Gove told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “We take seriously the views of colleagues, particularly eminent colleagues like Sir Bill who have deep and profound legal experience.

“But we believe this Bill is tough and robust, and more than that, you can look, you can read down the Bill, compare it to the Supreme Court judgment, and you can see that this Bill will ensure that all of the reasons that were used in the past to prevent people going to Rwanda are dealt with.”

He argued that other lawyers have deemed the legislation “sound” although one legal assessment for the government gives it a “50% at best” chance of success.

Mr Gove insisted that they were not thinking about launching a general election if they fail to get the Bill through Parliament.

“No, we’re not contemplating that because I’m confident that when people look at the legislation and have a chance to reflect they will recognise this is a tough but also proportionate measure,” he told Sky.

Labour will whip to vote against the Bill, meaning a rebellion by just 28 Tories could deliver a humiliating defeat as Mr Sunak battles to revive his £290 million scheme to send people who arrive on small boats to Rwanda.

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Sir Bill wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that they had been considering whether the “wording is sufficiently watertight to meet the government’s policy objectives”.

“At present it does not,” he said. “Our report, I hope, will be helpful to the government in deciding whether the Bill in its current form is fit for purpose or will require further amendment, even by the government itself.”

Rwanda president Paul Kagame like ‘Putin of Africa’

The president of Rwanda “is like the Putin of Africa”, anti-corruption campaigner Bill Browder has said. Mr Browder made the comparison between Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Russian president Vladimir Putin on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.

He used the example of Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager hero on whom the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda was based.

Mr Rusesabagina was sentenced in 2021 to 25 years in prison in Rwanda on terrorism charges. He was released after serving two years and returned to the US, where he now lives.

“I know this story very intimately because, the hero of the movie Hotel Rwanda, the guy who saved 1,200 people during the genocide, he was critical of Paul Kagame,” Mr Browder said.

“He was then kidnapped, brought back to Rwanda and sentenced to 25 years in a trumped-up trial.

“The idea that we’re going to be sending political refugees to a country that’s like that is just absurd.”

Mr Browder added that the whole Rwanda migration plan should be “torn up”.