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.
The result included 38 Tory abstentions, but none of the Conservative rebels who spent days criticising the bill voted against it.
Follow live: Reaction and fallout to MPs’ vote on Rwanda bill
This will come as a relief to the prime minister, who spent the day holding crisis talks with various factions of the Conservative right to persuade them to back it.
However, it means another battle is likely further down the line given the hardliners who abstained are demanding amendments to toughen up the legislation by blocking interference from foreign courts – something moderates from the opposite wing have said they will not support.
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.
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 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 Tories on the right of the party, from the so-called “five families” factions, said they did not support the legislation and the bulk of them would abstain tonight.
They said they will aim to table amendments which should “materially improve the bill and remove some of its weaknesses” – and warned they will vote down the bill at its third reading if these changes don’t pass.
The means Mr Sunak could face a fight on his hands in the new year.
The One Nation caucus of around 100 moderate MPs have said they won’t support the bill if it becomes more hardline.
And Home Secretary James Cleverly has suggested the legislation already “pushed at the edge of the envelope” on international law – so any changes would have to be within the current legal framework.
Rwanda has also told the UK government it will withdraw from the treaty if the UK were to breach its “international obligations”.
Despite a fresh row likely in the new year, government ministers were buoyed by the result of the vote tonight.
Rishi Sunak tweeted that he will now work to make the bill law “so that we can get flights going to Rwanda and stop the boats”.
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.”
