Sunak wins first vote on plan to send immigrants to Rwanda

Madrid

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, won the first vote on Tuesday evening (12) on his plan to send immigrants seeking political asylum to Rwanda in Africa until British authorities process permission to enter the islands.

Sunak won the House of Commons by a score of 313 to 269 after a day of negotiations with members of his own party and political spectrum. Despite the victory, the result showed the prime minister is struggling to maintain control of the Conservative Party.

Moderate Conservatives say they will not support the bill if it means the UK is breaching its human rights obligations. For rightwing politicians, the plan does not go far enough.

The Conservative Party has been in power for 13 years but trails Labor by around 18 to 20 points in voting intentions for the 2024 election.

Sunak breathed a sigh of relief when no Conservative MP voted against the bill in the socalled second reading. On the other hand, 38 members of his party abstained or were absent.

The “rebels” claim they could vote against the entire bill at the next Commons vote, known as the third reading, unless Sunak decides to make the text even more antiimmigration.

According to the Portal news agency, the prime minister was “forced” to suggest to the conservative rebels at breakfast this Tuesday that the project could be changed later. “We have collectively decided that we cannot support the bill tonight due to its many omissions,” said Rep. Mark Francois on behalf of some colleagues.

“We will discuss this again in January. We will table amendments and then move on,” Francois said, adding that his group reserved the right to vote against the legislation at a later date.

It would have only taken 29 Conservative MPs voting with the Labor opposition to reject the bill at its second reading. Since 1986, no government has missed a vote at this stage of its parliamentary negotiations.

Nervousness that Sunak might be defeated was so great, wrote the Financial Times newspaper, that all of the party's MPs were recalled from trips abroad, including Minister Graham Stuart, who represented the UK at the COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai.

Labor said it would abandon the project to send asylum seekers to Rwanda if it wins elections scheduled for next year.