Relief for Rishi Sunak as he avoids damaging defeat on Rwanda bill

Published

5 months ago

December 12, 2023

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Rishi Sunak has avoided a damaging Tory rebellion over his flagship Rwanda bill in a crunch vote in the Commons.

The totemic legislation, which aims to revive the stalled £290m deportation scheme after the Supreme Court ruled it unlawful, has been backed by MPs at its second reading by 313 votes to 269, a majority of 44.

Follow live: Reaction and fallout to MPs’ vote on Rwanda bill

The result will come as a huge relief to the prime minister, who spent today holding crisis talks with various factions of the Tory right to persuade them to back the bill.

The division list showed 37 Tories abstained but none voted against it, despite swathes of them trashing the legislation in recent days and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick even resigning because he did not think it was tough enough.

However, it means another battle is likely further down the line given the hardliners who abstained are demanding amendments to tighten the plan by blocking interference from foreign courts – something moderates from the opposite wing have said they will not support.

The bill seeks to declare in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country to send asylum seekers to, and stop flights being grounded for legal reasons by allowing ministers to disapply sections of the UK’s Human Rights Act (though not the European Convention on Human Rights, which some on the right are calling for).

Moments before MPs started voting, dozens of Tory hardliners from the so-called “five families” factions said they did not support the plan and the bulk of them would abstain tonight.

They said they will aim to table amendments in the new year which should “materially improve the bill and remove some of its weaknesses” – and warned they could vote down the legislation at its third reading if these changes aren’t made.

Bill ‘goes to the edge of what’s acceptable’

That means Mr Sunak could face a fight on his hands in January when the bill comes back before parliament.

Downing Street said it was prepared to listen to proposed changes from MPs at a later stage but Home Secretary James Cleverly suggested in the Commons that the legislation was already close to the limits of what would be possible.

The One Nation caucus of around 100 moderate MPs have also said they won’t support the bill if it becomes more hardline.

Damien Green, the chairman of the group, told Sky News the legislation currently “goes to the very edge of what’s acceptable in terms of meeting our international obligations and the rule of law”.

He said he wanted the legislation to proceed “unamended” and his faction would only accept “very minor” changes.

Rwanda has also told the UK government it will withdraw from the treaty if the UK were to breach its “international obligations”.

However Tory rebels remained firm in their position after the vote, with a source saying: “This bill has been allowed to live another day but without amendments it will be killed next month. It’s now up to the government to decide what it wants to do.”

The PM has won the battle but the deeper civil war will rage on

His authority stretched to snapping point, the prime minister saved himself from freefall on Tuesday night after winning the vote on his emergency Rwanda legislation with a majority of 44.

All day there were whispers of it being on a knife edge and might only scrape through. When MPs representing the five Tory grouping on the right of the party said they’d advised members to abstain, it was a nervy moment. In the end 37 MPs abstained – and the prime mInister won the day.

Anything else didn’t bear contemplating: A loss at second reading – where MPs debate the principle of a piece of legislation, rather than the nuts of bolts of a bill, is extremely rare: the last time it happened was to Margaret Thatcher nearly 40 years ago over Sunday trading laws.

There is no doubt huge relief tonight in Downing Street as Rishi Sunak’s Christmas nightmare turned into a Christmas reprieve.

His supporters have their tails up, with Damian Green, the chair of the One Nation group, telling me that the majority showed the PM didn’t need to amend this bill for it to live. His message to the PM was the face the rebels down and keep the legislation as it is.

But, on the other side of the party, the message from right wingers as the House of Commons cleared out was clear. Mark Francois, the chair of the ERG Brexiteer group told me simply that MPs were willing to take on the PM and would be amending the bill in the New Year.

Another senior rebel figure put it like this: “This bill has been allowed to live another day. But without amendments it will be killed next month. It’s now up to the government to decide what it wants to do.”

To put it another way, this could very much prove a pyrrhic victory come the new year: The prime minister has was won this battle but the deeper civil war in the party over what to do about Rwanda will rage on, and when this when it comes to who will triumph, all bets still off

PM: ‘We can stop the boats’

Despite a fresh row likely in the new year, ministers were buoyed by the result of the vote tonight.

Given the government’s working majority of 56, a revolt by 29 Tory MPs, or 57 abstentions, would have been required to defeat the bill at its first Commons hurdle – something that has not happened to a piece of legislation since 1986.

There appeared to be nerves in Downing Street this morning with climate change minister Graham Stuart flown back from last-ditch talks at the Cop28 summit in Dubai to vote for the legislation.

But the outcome proved more comfortable than initially feared for Rishi Sunak.

The prime minister wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he will now work to make the bill law “so that we can get flights going to Rwanda and stop the boats”.

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Mr Cleverly said: “Parliament has spoken. We must be able to choose who comes to our country – not criminal gangs. That’s what this bill will deliver.”

‘Tory civil war continuing’

But Labour said despite the victory the situation showed the “Conservatives’ civil war is continuing”.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Today’s debate shows how weak Rishi Sunak is with this Tory psychodrama now dragging on into the New Year.

“The costs of the failing Rwanda scheme are apparently rising to £400 million of taxpayers’ money, while no one has yet been sent and this scheme is only likely to cover less than 1% of those arriving in the UK.

“They’ve broken the Tory Party, broken the asylum system and broken every promise they have made to the British people. Britain deserves better than this.”

She called on the government to scrap the scheme and use the money to crack down on criminal gangs and reduce the asylum backlog – something Labour has vowed to do if it wins the next election.

UK

Poorer people dying increasingly younger than richer people as ‘dismal’ life expectancy gap grows, report finds

Published

2 hours ago

May 1, 2024

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Poorer people dying increasingly younger than richer people as 'dismal' life expectancy gap grows, report finds

People from poorer neighbourhoods in England are dying increasingly younger than those in wealthier areas, a report has found.

General life expectancy has fallen by 0.2 years for men and remained the same for women since 2010-12, according to the research, at 82.8 and 78.8 for females and males respectively in 2020-22.

It had increased over the previous 10 years, from 2000-2 to 2010-12, by 2.3 and 3.1 years for females and males respectively.

But while the COVID pandemic contributed to the change in figures up until 2022, researchers from the UCL’s Institute of Health Equity (IHE) said healthy life expectancy had fallen slightly for women and stalled for men in the 10 years until 2019.

Healthy life expectancy is the average number of years that a person can expect to live in “full health”, by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.

Although there has been a markedly slower rate of increase in life expectancy at birth in England since 2011 than in previous decades, even this increase has varied across regions – with a widening of the north-south gap and women.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, IHE director, said: “Put simply, Britain is a poor, sick country, getting sicker, with a few rich and healthy people; the results of a dismal failure of central government policies since 2010.

“Not only is health the foremost concern of your local constituents, communities and businesses, health is also an indicator of how well a nation is performing. Unfortunately, Britain is performing poorly.”

The study, England’s Widening Health Gap: Local Places Falling Behind, found women in the most deprived neighbourhoods had seen a fall in their life expectancy even before the pandemic.

And its headline findings showed there were no statistically significant decreases in inequalities in life expectancy for men or women in any of the English local authorities.

The largest increase in inequality between 2010 and 2019 was in female life expectancy in Kensington and Chelsea – where the difference between the poorest and richest neighbourhoods grew from 6.2 to 11.9 years.

This means women in the most affluent parts of the area are expected to live to an average of 90.7 years, compared to 77.2 in the poorest neighbourhoods.

Among the other local authorities with the biggest increases in inequality of life expectancy was also for women, in Stoke-on-Trent – where the difference grew from 3.8 to 8.9 years (the ages of 75.8 and 85.8).

Of English regions, the North East saw the largest growth in life expectancy inequality, with a rise of 1.9 years among women and 1.5 years among men.

The IHE said there had been statistically significant increases in life expectancy inequality in 17 local authorities in total.

Sir Michael has written to the 58 MPs whose constituencies lie wholly or partially in these local authorities, along with each area’s local authority leaders, to highlight “particularly concerning health trends” in the areas.

Among them are six former or current cabinet ministers, including former prime minister Liz Truss, levelling up,
housing and communities secretary Michael Gove and former housing, communities and local government secretary Robert Jenrick.

Sir Michael added: “This is a dismal state of affairs. I’m saying to party leaders: make this the central plank of the next government – stop policies harming health and widening health inequalities.

“To MPs: If you care about the health of your constituents, you must be appalled by their deteriorating health. It’s time for action and political leadership across the board.

“Important as is the NHS – publicly funded and free at the point of use – action is needed on the social determinants of health: the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These social conditions are the main causes of health inequalities.”

A government spokesperson said: “As set out in our Levelling Up White Paper, we are committed to narrowing the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030 and to increasing healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.”

The complete list of the 17 local authorities with statistically significant increases in life expectancy inequality are:

Amber Valley
Bexley
Cambridgeshire
Charnwood
Cornwall
County Durham
Erewash
Guildford
Kensington and Chelsea
Newark and Sherwood
Norfolk
Norwich
North Somerset
Northumberland
Rotherham
Stoke-on-Trent
Telford and Wrekin

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‘Thanks to God’: Woman’s joy on making it to England after 30 attempts

Published

2 hours ago

May 1, 2024

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'Thanks to God': Woman's joy on making it to England after 30 attempts

Less than a week after she survived a migrant boat disaster in which five people died, Heivin is standing in a car park next to a shabby hotel near London, smiling and joyous.

After a string of failed attempts to reach England, her dream has finally been fulfilled.

“It was really hard and dangerous for me, but I finally made it here, thanks to God,” she said.

“I am very happy to be here because I think it is a safe country and it is very suitable for me. But part of me is still in shock that the journey is finally over.”

She is a slight young woman, just 18 years old but blessed with a confidence that allowed her to persevere when others might have given up.

She left Kurdistan around a year ago, crossing Europe to France, and living in camps, woodland and in underpasses along the way.

“It was very hard,” she said.

“Especially when you’re on your own, and a young woman. It can be very dangerous.”

Kurdistan is a region that straddles Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq, and whose people have historically faced ethnic and political persecution from the governments of those countries.

Heivin tried 30 times to reach England from the coast of northern France, with her penultimate attempt seeing her take a place on a boat that was wildly overcrowded after it was violently hijacked by a rival group of migrants.

In the ensuing melee, five people died, including a young child.

It was shortly after that trauma that we met Heivin for the first time, as she was recovering from the ordeal of that boat.

The memories still haunted her of seeing people crushed.

Even then, Heivin said she would be trying again and, in the early hours of Saturday morning, she made it.

Her boat left a French beach in the early hours and chugged towards Britain.

The people smugglers who arranged the crossing, she said, were “good with us”.

“We only had to wait for three to four hours, then we went down the beach and boarded the dinghy,” she added.

But the boat, as so often with these crossings, was ill-equipped and struggled in the water before being intercepted by a French coastguard vessel, which offered assistance.

Of nearly 60 people on board, 33 were taken off, but the others, including Heivin, remained at sea, determined to get to Britain.

Heivin said: “This time I went, but I always had the feeling that I would not make it and have to return like the other times.

“It was also extremely cold that night and my clothes were soaking wet. I kept saying to myself ‘I won’t make it’, but thank God, I did make it.”

The decisive point came when the dinghy entered British waters and, before long, the passengers on board were collected by a Border Force vessel and taken to the mainland.

I asked her: “How did you feel when you saw the British boat?”

Heivin’s face breaks into a broad smile as she says “so happy” with a shake of her head that is loaded with emotion.

She added: “I felt overjoyed. I didn’t expect that we would make it to Britain. I thought we would just end up back in France again, like the other times.

“When I saw the British boat, I was extremely happy – I just can’t explain it. I’m so happy.”

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Shellfish industry on a ‘knife edge’ as sewage dumped in designated waters for 192,000 hours last year

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2 hours ago

May 1, 2024

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Shellfish industry on a 'knife edge' as sewage dumped in designated waters for 192,000 hours last year

Untreated sewage was released into designated shellfish waters for 192,000 hours last year, new research has found.

The dirty water pouring into English seas was a 20% jump from 159,000 hours in 2022, according to the analysis of Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats, shared with Sky News.

The hours of sewage dumping were spread across 23,000 separate incidents – a slight fall from the previous year, but still an average of 64 times a day.

Some fishing waters in Cornwall were forced to close last year after high levels of e.coli were found in oysters and mussels, and norovirus can also be transported via human waste.

While the fishing industry can usually clean its catch before it reaches the plate, it has branded the situation a “stitch-up” because it foots the bill for the process.

Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said: “This environmental scandal is putting wildlife at risk of unimaginable levels of pollution.

“The food we eat, and the British fisheries industry, must be protected from raw sewage.”

The Lib Dems are calling for an investigation into shellfish water quality – which should be protected from deterioration under the Water Framework Directive – and a government clampdown on polluting companies.

“It is getting worse on their watch and there will be real concerns for the fishing industry if this trend continues,” added Mr Farron, whose party is targeting many rural seats in the upcoming general election.

The worst offender was South West Water, responsible for 13,000 sewage discharges, totalling 98,000 hours, followed by Southern Water, which released sewage 7,000 times for 73,000 hours.

Southern Water pointed to the fact 2023 fell in the wettest 18-month period on record, while South West Water said it has a high proportion of shellfish waters across its vast West Country coastline.

Just 9% of shellfish waters in England reach the top “class A” status – clean enough that shellfish harvested from them can be sold without being purified first.

Anything caught from lower quality waters must be cleaned first in depuration tanks, where the molluscs purge themselves with sterile water, or cannot be sold at all.

Fishing industry on a ‘knife edge’

Martin Laity, of Sailors Creek Shellfish, has been catching native oysters from the waters of Cornwall for 34 years.

He tracks alerts on the latest sewage discharges, so he can avoid fishing in those waters, and sometimes soaks the oysters in purification tanks for days longer than mandated just to be safe.

He calls the situation a “stitch-up” because it pushes up producers’ electricity and labour costs, and reduces the value of their catch, for which they receive no compensation.

Joe Redfern from the Shellfish Association Of Great Britain said producers “live on a knife edge”.

“Just one bad result can shut down their business overnight, leading to huge impacts to their business. It is a desperate situation and one that seems to be getting worse, with some businesses shutting for good,” he said.

It wants compensation for producers from the fines the government imposed on water companies for excessive sewage releases.

A spokesperson for industry body Water UK said: “Water companies understand and sympathise with the issues these businesses and coastal communities are facing, which is why we are proposing to spend £11bn to reduce spills as quickly as possible, halving spills into shellfish water by 2030.”

An environment department (Defra) spokesperson said: “We’re already taking action to clean up shellfish sites by driving the water industry to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in history – £60bn over 25 years – to cut spills by hundreds of thousands each year.

“Shellfish sites will be prioritised alongside bathing waters and sites of ecological importance.”

Defra is also increasing inspections and regulator funding, and considering banning some water company bonuses, they added.

South West Water said its plans will ensure all shellfish sites in its area meet the government’s target of less than 10 spills per year by 2030, and Southern Water said shellfish can also be infected by farming, run off from roads, boats, marine life and pesticides.