Sunak urges Labour not to oppose Rwanda bill after being dealt fresh blow by legal assessment from Tory right concluding legislation is not fit for purpose

• Emergency legislation to restart Rwanda flights faces a crunch vote on Tuesday
• READ MORE: Boris could RETURN as Prime Minister in astonishing new plan

Rishi Sunak has urged Labour not to oppose his new Rwanda legislation after the Tory right dealt the Bill a fresh blow after judging that it was not fit for purpose.

The Prime Minister has pleaded with Sir Keir Starmer to ‘rise above political games’ and ‘act in the national interest’ by supporting the emergency proposal, which aims to resurrect the asylum plans after they were ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. 

Mr Sunak is battling to keep his own Tory MPs onside in a major test for his leadership after immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigned, saying the proposed new legislation ‘does not go far enough’.

And despite the PM’s assurances that the revised proposals will ensure that Rwanda is seen as a safe country for asylum seekers in UK law, a Tory MP has given a withering assessment of the plans, suggesting they are not ‘sufficiently watertight’.

Sir Bill Cash, who has chaired a legal examination being waited on by many in the party, has signalled that the Bill is lacking the irrefutable legal weight it needs to bypass the courts, despite Mr Sunak hoping it will revive his plan to ‘stop the boats’.

Rishi Sunak has urged Labour to support the emergency Rwanda plans. A rebellion by just 28 of the 350 Tories in Parliament could see the Bill defeated

Sir Keir Starmer is set to use a speech to accuse the Tories of being unable to govern while factions fight ‘like rats in a sack’

Mr Sunak says the legislation will put in place the protections needed to restart flights to Rwanda (pictured: a deportation flight last year that was stopped by a last minute legal bid)

The Rwanda policy is a cornerstone of Mr Sunak’s government, which has vowed to ‘stop the boats’ (pictured: a group of people thought to be migrants in the Channel in August)

Conservatives from both the right and the left of the party are considering whether to oppose it in a crunch vote on Tuesday, with neither camp totally satisfied by the offering.

Labour will whip to vote against the Bill, meaning a rebellion by just 28 Tories could deliver a humiliating defeat for the Government.

Sir Keir’s party accused the Tories of ‘begging for our votes’ to pass the legislation to help revive their £290million Rwanda ‘gimmick’.

READ MORE: Gangs offer ‘festive season discounts’ to migrants trying to come to Britain illegally in latest crackdown mockery

The Labour leader is also stepping up his attacks and will use a speech to accuse the Tories of being unable to govern while their warring factions are ‘fighting like rats in a sack’.

But Mr Sunak insisted he will take a ‘significant step’ towards his promise to the voters that he will ‘stop the boats’, which he said the public cares deeply about.

He argued in a statement that the Opposition is ‘not fit to govern’, adding: ‘This week, Labour needs for once to rise above political games.

‘They need for once to stop acting in their short-term interests. They need to act in the national interest.’

Labour argued that the Prime Minister trying to shift the focus onto the Opposition was a desperate move.

‘That the Prime Minister is begging for our votes proves his tired, chaotic government cannot deliver for our country,’ a party spokesman said.

Mr Sunak’s efforts to prevent his divided MPs rebelling on the legislation hit a snag when it was revealed that a legal assessment has been given it only a ‘50% at best’ chance of success of getting removal flights off to Rwanda.

Sir Bill Cash as chaired a so-called ‘star chamber’ of lawyers carrying out an examination for the European Research Group of Tory MPs.

Others on the right in the New Conservatives and the Common Sense groups are also awaiting the findings, expected on Monday.

Veteran Tory Sir Bill Cash has warned that the wording of the emergency Rwanda law is not ‘sufficiently watertight’ to guarantee its success

Former home secretary Suella Braverman – who was sacked after defying No 10 over an article she wrote criticising the police – has stated that she does not see the legislation working

Robert Jenrick quit as immigration minister because, he said, the proposed new Rwanda legislation ‘does not go far enough’

The veteran Tory 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.’

Meanwhile, sacked home secretary Suella Braverman questioned Mr Sunak’s ‘rather strange claim’ that going further on the Bill would have caused the £290 million deal with Rwanda to ‘collapse’.

She told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘I’ve been to Rwanda several times and I have spoken to the Rwandan government a lot. It never once raised any kind of concerns like this.’

Mrs Braverman echoed Robert Jenrick by raising concerns that it leaves ignoring temporary Rule 39 injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights, which blocked last year’s flight, to the Government.

‘I know that our Attorney General has advised that to ignore a Rule 39 injunction would be a breach of international law, so therefore as it stands Rule 39s will block flights,’ Mrs Braverman told the newspaper.

Mr Sunak’s efforts to prevent his divided MPs rebelling on the legislation hit another snag when it was revealed that a legal assessment has been given it only a ‘50% at best’ chance of success of getting removal flights off to Rwanda.

Migrants move a smuggling boat into the water as they embark on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on October 12

More moderate Tories from the One Nation group are concerned about telling courts they must find that the East African nation is ‘safe’ – despite the Supreme Court ruling that the country was not appropriate.

Some on the right want to go further in disapplying the European Convention on Human Rights while also attempting to bypass the courts.

Would-be rebels from across the spectrum, however, may wait until a later stage to seek to amend Mr Sunak’s plans rather than deliver him a humiliating defeat this week.

Meanwhile, people smuggling gangs are offering ‘festive season discounts’ to migrants trying to come to Britain – making a mockery of the Tory infighting over the Rwanda proposals.

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