Defiant peers have rejected Rishi Sunak’s warning not to frustrate “the will of the people” by opposing his flagship Rwanda legislation as the prime minister heads for a showdown with the House of Lords.
The PM described his controversial deportation plan as an “urgent national priority” and told the upper chamber it was “now time to pass this bill”.
But peers accused him of “vacuous” comments that showed he did not understand the role of the Lords, as they warned him not to try to “ram” his legislation through.
In a sign of the depth of opposition he faces, leading lawyer Lord Carlile denounced the bill as “a step toward totalitarianism”.
The former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation also accused ministers of trying to place themselves “to an unacceptable level above the law” and warned the integrity of legal system was “under attack because of internal political quarrelling in the Conservative Party”.
The fight to save his embattled plan to stop small boats crossings comes as a new YouGov poll shows support for the Conservatives at the lowest level since Liz Truss’s final days in Downing Street, with just 10 per cent of voters under 50 saying they would back the party.
Mr Sunak suffered a blow on Tuesday when two deputy chairmen of the Tory party resigned to back amendments designed to toughen up his Rwanda plan.
But 24 hours later he saw a threatened rebellion against the legislation in the Commons melt away as MPs backed the move by a majority of 44.
However, the prime minister now faces stiff opposition in the Lords, who could stall his plans significantly and place in jeopardy any hopes of getting flights airborne by the spring.
During a hastily arranged press conference in Downing Street on Thursday morning, Mr Sunak refused to publically commit to a timeline.
Asked twice if he could guarantee flights would take off before the general election, he said the question was “for the Labour Party and the House of Lords", although his official spokesman later said the government’s aim was still this spring.
Mr Sunak also urged peers to "do the right thing" and back his Rwanda legislation.
It was now “past time to start the flights”, he said, as he accused Labour of having “no plan”.
He also said he was prepared to disregard injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights, despite warnings that to do so could breach international law.
Mr Sunak is trying to keep alive the scheme, which would mean migrants who cross the Channel in small boats could be sent to Rwanda rather than being allowed to seek asylum in the UK, after the Supreme Court ruled it was unlawful.
The legislation, along with a recently-signed treaty with Kigali, is designed to make the plan legally watertight, by having parliament declare Rwanda a safe country.
In response Lord Carlile described the press conference as “vacuous” and “banal”.
The crossbench peer described the legislation as ”exceptionally malign” and said it was legitimate for peers to put it “to the test, to amend it and above all ensure it does not damage the reputation of our great UK jurisdictions across the world, which this Bill will if it is passed in its present form”.
He said it was right for peers to send it back to the Commons – in what is known as parliamentary ping pong – “repeatedly if necessary”.
He added: “The Lords is not in the business of killing bills that come from the House of Commons. Our first task is to try to make it work. But there are some of us who might well consider killing it if what emerges is not acceptable under UK legal norms”.
Former pensions minister Ros Altmann told The Independent it would be unwise for Mr Sunak to try to “ram” his Rwanda bill through the Lords.
It was the upper chamber’s “national duty” to “properly scrutinise, debate and discuss” legislation, she said as she urged the PM to not “start overriding the House of Lords”, adding: “We don’t want to hear what you have to say”.
Former child refugee Lord Dubs told The Independent that the prime minister urging the Lords to “get on” and pass his Rwanda bill was “outrageous”.
He said Mr Sunak was “politically illiterate” for piling pressure on peers, adding it is not a matter of “party politics” but a matter of “basic constitutional principles”.
He also turned on Mr Sunak over his claim that the Rwanda policy is the “will of the people”. “Politicians claim that when they have no good arguments left,” he said.
It came as the UK’s statistics watchdog slammed Mr Sunak for his repeated claim to have “cleared” the asylum backlog – and warned that the assertion could erode trust in the government.
Sir Robert Chote, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said voters may have felt “misled”.
The prime minister was accused of trying to “cook the books” and a “barefaced lie” over the assertion, made despite figures showing nearly 100,000 migrants still waiting for a decision.
Polling guru Sir John Curtice also warned Mr Sunak voters would likely be more concerned with the state of the economy and the cost of living than immigration at the next election.
Speaking at a briefing for charity Citizens Advice, Sir John said that voters are in a state of “deep, deep economic pessimism” and are still punishing the Tory party for Liz Truss’s “mini budget”, which caused the pound to fall sharply and spiked mortgage rates.
He said: “The economy and the cost of living does matter in the electoral contest to come... It will probably become more important for voters than immigration, on which the government has focused over the course of the last week”.