UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appears to be captaining a sinking ship over his Rwanda migration policy. A Conservative Party official confirmed that on Tuesday evening, Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith quit their roles as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.
The two said they had resigned over the government’s lack of willingness to toughen the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) bill---a piece of legislation which Sunak put forward after the Supreme Court ruled that his immigration plan was unlawful in November. But Anderson and Clarke-Smith aren't the only Tory MPS who are concerned the bill will not work in its current form.
As many as 70 Tory MPs are reported to most likely rebel against the Sunak’s administration by voting for amendments in hopes of strengthening the bill. However, the administration is not expected to lose those votes as they don’t have the support of the Labour Party.
On Tuesday, Sunak’s government was able to defeat two changes to the bill that would have strengthened it. The next round of voting is expected to take place on Wednesday.
"Whilst our main wish is to strengthen the legislation, this means that in order to vote for amendments we will therefore need to offer you our resignations," Anderson and Clarke-Smith said in a joint letter. They added that the administration has “already had two pieces of legislation thwarted by a system that does not work in favor of the British people.”
“It is for this reason that we have supported the amendments to the Rwanda Bill,” they wrote. “This is not because we are against the legislation, but because like everybody else we want it to work.”
The two resignations are further evidence of a governing party that is deeply divided over Sunak’s flagship Rwanda bill, which he hopes will bulldoze legal challenges that are preventing the country from sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. Some of those in the Conservative Party believe the plan does not do enough, while others believe strengthening the bill could breach international law.
Sunak is using his bill as a last effort to raise his party’s poll numbers as the opposition Labour Party surges ahead in polling.
While working as a UK Chancellor of the Exchequer under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sunak had ethical objections to immigration policy that planned to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Sunak has since changed his tune and has adopted the plan in an attempt to save staggering poll numbers and to ease tensions in his party. But in mid-November, the UK’s Supreme Court called the plan unlawful and the European Court of Human Rights even blocked flights to Rwanda in response to the bill.