Sunak urges mutinous Tories to ‘unite or die’ over Rwanda ahead of key vote – live

Rishi Sunak and his team at the Treasury did not think highly of the Rwanda policy when it initially crossed the then-chancellor’s desk in spring 2022, according to a report.

Mr Sunak and his colleagues privately raised concerns with Boris Johnson’s Downing Street and Cabinet ministers about whether the Rwanda scheme would work and would provide value for money, six people involved in the discussions told the outlet.

While chancellor, he is also claimed have pushed for more foreign graduates to be allowed to stay post-study, for migrant workers to be able to bring dependents, and for a lower salary threshold to enable more foreign workers, all in pursuit of economic growth, the six people reportedly said – running in stark contrast to the new policies outlined by his government this week.

Tory former minister Simon Clarke, who weeks ago called for Rishi Sunak to call a snap election if the Lords blocks his emergency Rwanda legislation – has thrown his backing behind Robert Jenrick’s op-ed in the Telegraph today.

The Truss-era communities secretary called for “nothing less than a paradigm shift”, as he appeared to back Mr Jenrick’s calls for the UK to abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.

Rishi Sunak is set to be grilled about his controversial Eat Out to Help scheme and his doubts about lockdown curbs when he appears at the Covid inquiry on Monday.

The PM – fighting to save his premiership after failing to appease Tory MPs with his Rwanda legislation – will come under pressure to explain his actions as chancellor during the pandemic.

Mr Sunak is expected to be questioned about his previous claims that scientific advisers were handed too much power, and his views on the damage done by lockdowns.

In an interview during the Tory leadership contest last August, the former chancellor said the “problem” had been: “If you empower all these independent people you’re screwed.”

Mr Sunak also told The Spectator that he “wasn’t allowed to talk about the trade-offs” of Covid lockdowns – including its impact on the economy, schools and NHS waiting lists.

Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s former chief of staff at No 10, has said the uphill battle faced by Rishi Sunak is similar to the parliamentary Brexit wars while brought down his former boss.

“It feels very late 2018, early 2019,” Lord Barwell told The Telegraph – who suggested it was difficult to see how right-wingers and moderates could be reconciled, even if the bill passes the first reading stage on Tuesday.

“It’s all a bit Brexit isn’t it?” The Tory peer said on Times Radio. He added: “It feels like the party is back in that ungovernable space, that unleadable space. You’ve got these two wings of the party and it’s very difficult to see where the landing zone is.”

Mr Sunak has been warned that he is facing a “Brexit-style” legislative campaign by a group of up to 30 hardliners who will keep pushing for more.

“The gang of 30 are using this legislation as a Trojan horse to leave the ECHR and to pick a fight and attack Rishi,” one Tory MP told the i newspaper.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith has urged Tory MPs to pass a bill that “get those flights off to Rwanda” – which stops short of an endorsement for Rishi Sunak’s legislation in its current form.

The former Tory leader told The Telegraph: “The reality is that we are in a more febrile state than under [Sir] John Major. John Major took us to the election.”

“We’ll have had three prime ministers in this period, which is unprecedented really. That means this infighting will carry on, because it’s not settled.

A hardliner on immigration, Sir Ian added: “The one way out of this, both electorally and internally, is that we decide collectively that getting those flights off to Rwanda is critical and we pass a law to achieve that.”

Dominic Raab has said Conservatives MPs “should back the [Rwanda] bill, rather than let the best be the enemy of the good”.

Writing for The Telegraph, the former justice secretary urging rebels to “tighten up” the legislation at committee stage rather than vote it down on Tuesday.

Raab said he accepted that the bill “leaves open the possibility that the individual circumstances of a case could render a migrant at particular risk” – but hoped the Supreme Court would need “truly exceptional circumstances to bar removal”.

The former deputy PM said he was confident the legislation “prevents the UK courts from relying on interim measures from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as grounds for blocking removal”.

Nigel Farage could soon stage a return to frontline politics by playing a leading role for the Conservatives’ right-wing rivals Reform UK, the party’s leader has said.

Richard Tice said the star of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! would find it “very hard to resist” a big comeback ahead of the next year’s general election.

Some senior Tories have suggested they would like to see Mr Farage join the Tories – with one MP suggesting he could be given a peerage and made home secretary. However, Mr Tice suggested Mr Farage was keen to take up a prominent role for Reform UK once again, the party he co-founded from the ashes of the Brexit Party.

“He needs to make the judgment – does he want to come back full time into politics?” the Reform leader told The Telegraph.

Our political correspondent Adam Forrest reports:

Sacked home secretary Suella Braverman has praised Robert Jenrick – who this week voluntarily followed her out of the door of the Home Office – for “putting principle before career”, as she shared his Telegraph op-ed warning that Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda legislation is doomed to fail.

“He knows the detail. It is very concerning that he can’t defend the Bill,” Ms Braverman said, in a blow to Mr Sunak as he hopes to persuade MPs to back him in Tuesday’s vote.

She added: “The public are relying on us to stop the boats. What do we say to them when we pass another law that fails? Time is running out.”

Former Tory minister David Lidington has rejected a suggestion that Rishi Sunak should call an early general election if he fails to pass his Rwanda legislation through parliament and seek to make it a single-issue vote on immigration.

“There’s a case both for & against an early GE but (whatever PM wanted) can’t see it being a single issue campaign. That’s what Ted Heath discovered in Feb 1974,” he tweeted, referring to the former Tory leader’s decision to call an election seeking to wrest power away from unions.

And as Matt Chorley of Times Radio notes, the Tories have been polling lower than Labour on immigration since last September, according to YouGov’s tracker.

Rishi Sunak must be investigated over whether he breached the ministerial code by failing to declare a £100m payment to Rwanda, the Liberal Democrats have urged his ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus.

The payment – sent to Kigali in April on top of the £140m already paid – was only revealed eight months later in a letter to MPs sent by the Home Office’s top civil servant, Sir Matthew Rycroft, on Thursday.

Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine urged Mr Magnus to investigate what appeared to be a “clear breach” of the ministerial code, calling it “outrageous” that the public was “kept in the dark about the true costs of the Rwanda deal for eight months”.

“The public deserves transparency, not hushed-up backroom dealings. We need an urgent inquiry to get to the bottom of this,” she said.

While Sir Laurie can privately raise matters that could have been breaches of the rules, he cannot launch an investigation without approval from the prime minister.