by Andrew MacAskill, Elizabeth Piper and Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak managed on Tuesday to put down a rebellion by elected officials from the right wing of his Conservative Party, linked to the bill on the return of asylum seekers to Rwanda , but he lost two of his main allies, who announced their resignations.
The resignations of Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smit, vice-presidents of the Conservative Party, highlight the deep divisions in the ranks of the party over one of Rishi Sunak’s flagship projects, ahead of general elections which must take place this year.
Rishi Sunak, who came to power in October 2022, made the fight against illegal arrivals of migrants a priority, promising to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel towards the British coast.
While the Prime Minister considers it essential to put in place the program to return asylum seekers to Rwanda, in particular to increase the popularity of the conservatives in the polls, the text divides the ranks of the Party.
Among moderate elected officials, there is concern about seeing Great Britain violating its humanitarian obligations, while the most right-wing elected officials believe that the text is insufficient.
An amendment intended to make the bill even stricter failed Tuesday evening in Parliament, a victory that the Sunak government owes to the opposition parties while more than 65 conservative elected officials supported this amendment.
Rishi Sunak passed his most important test as Prime Minister last month, with a first vote on his plan for asylum seekers – a text amended after being overturned by the British Supreme Court.
Some conservative elected officials who threatened to revolt then preferred to abstain rather than vote against the text, while warning that they could oppose the bill during the following stages of the legislative process unless the modifications that they ask to be brought.
A senior Conservative lawmaker said there were enough party rebels to defeat Rishi Sunak in the final vote in the House of Commons, which is expected to take place on Wednesday.
Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith said in a joint letter that they had resigned over the government’s reluctance to strengthen the bill, saying they wanted the law to be effective but felt it was impossible as it stood.
While the number of asylum seekers arriving by sea in Britain fell last year compared to 2022, the situation remains a highly visible symbol of London’s failure to control the flow of illegal boats reaching the British borders via the Channel – one of the flagship promises of Brexit supporters.
Most migrants say they are fleeing armed conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. However the British government says that many of these migrants, around 90% of whom are men, come for economic reasons and are not real refugees.
Nearly sixty conservative elected officials support an amendment allowing the government to ignore possible last-minute decisions by judges of the European Court of Human Rights which would aim to prevent deportation flights to Rwanda.
(Reporting Andrew MacAskill, Elizabeth Piper, Sachin Ravikumar, Alistair Smout, Farouq Suleiman; French version Jean Terzian)
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