Cleverly says bill ‘pushing at edge of envelope’ but still ‘within framework of international law’
John Baron (Con) asks Cleverly to confirm that the government will remain within international law.
Cleverly says he is confident, on the basis of conversations with government’s legal advisers, that what it is doing is “within the framework of international law”.
But the measures are “novel”, and “very much pushing at the edge of the envelope”, he says.
Key events
Cleverly says the supreme court’s judgment was based on the facts from 18 months ago.
Those facts can be remedied, he says.
The new treaty with Rwanda now sets out obligations on Rwanda and the UK within international law.
Jeremy Wright (Con), a former attorney general, asks Cleverly to confirm that parliament does not have the power to deem itself in compliance with international law.
He says no country should be able to just state it is within international law.
He suggests the language of the bill needs to be clarified on this point.
Cleverly says that is not the intention of the bill. The deeming clause is about the safety of Rwanda, he says.
Joanna Cherry (SNP) asks, if Rwanda has addressed the problems raised by the supreme court, why is legislation necessary?
Cleverly says the bill will make this clear and unambiguous.
Sir Bill Cash (Con) asks Cleverly if he agrees that clear wording clearly establishing the intention of parliament takes precedence over international law.
Cleverly says Cash is right. When the wording of a bill is clear and unambiguous, where there is a deeming cause, that must take precedence.
Daniel Kawczynski (Con) says the Congolese president has described the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, as Hitler-like. Does the government agree?
Cleverly says the UK goverment does not accept that assessment.
Cleverly says bill ‘pushing at edge of envelope’ but still ‘within framework of international law’
John Baron (Con) asks Cleverly to confirm that the government will remain within international law.
Cleverly says he is confident, on the basis of conversations with government’s legal advisers, that what it is doing is “within the framework of international law”.
But the measures are “novel”, and “very much pushing at the edge of the envelope”, he says.
James Cleverly claims government ‘is stopping the boats’ as he opens debate on Rwanda bill
James Cleverly, the home secretary, is opening the debate on the Rwanda bill.
He starts by referring to the death of an asylum seeker on the Bibby Stockholm barge. He says he cannot go into details, but the case is being investigated, he says.
He goes on:
This government is stopping the boats. Arrivals are down by a third this year as illegal entries are on the rise elsewhere in Europe. Indeed arrivals are up by 80% in the Mediterranean, they are down by a third across the channel.
The Foreign Office has been in touch to say that David Cameron’s appearance at the European scrutiny committee today was cancelled at the committee’s request, not Cameron’s. (See 10.59am.)
No 10 insists Rwanda bill is ‘tough’ – but says it is open to ‘constructive comments’ from MPs
Last week Rishi Sunak suggested that, if he were to toughen the Rwanda bill by “an inch”, it would become unworkable (because it would no longer be acceptable to Rwanda).
But now No 10 is sounding a little more receptive to possible changes to the bill. At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked if Sunak still thought it would be impossible to make the bill stronger, the PM’s spokesperson said:
We are willing to listen to constructive comments from colleagues. We believe this is a tough piece of legislation which will achieve its objectives and the public’s objectives of stopping the boats.
The spokesperson said Downing Street would not be pulling the bill – which is what Mark Francois, chair of the European Research Group, has been saying should happen.
(If No 10 was planning to pull the bill, it left it a bit late; the second reading debate is starting in about five minutes.)
The spokesperson also confirmed that the climate change minister, Graham Stuart, has been ordered to return from the Cop28 summit in Dubai for tonight’s vote.
Former chief whip Nick Brown resigns from Labour in protest at ‘flawed’ handling of complaint against him
Nick Brown, a former chief whip, has announced he is standing down as an MP at the next election – and resigning his party membership in protest at the way an allegation against him is being investigated.
The MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East has had the whip suspended for more than a year after a complaint was lodged against him under the party’s independent complaints procedure.
In a statement issued today via lawyers, Brown said the complaint was made by a political rival and related to something alleged to have happened more than 25 years ago. He also said the accusations were “entirely false”.
Brown said that, when the complaint was first lodged, he was “determined to trust” the party’s disciplinary process.
But, in his statement today, he said he had concluded that he was not getting a fair hearing because the party’s procedures were “flawed” and lacked “the most basic of procedural fairness and evidential safeguards”.
He said disciplinary hearings were not taking place in person, that witnesses were not allowed to be questioned by lawyers, and that the panel was considering evidence from friends of the complainants who did not know anything about the allegation until the complainant mentioned it to them more than 20 years after it was supposed to have happened. He went on:
My own legal team – which include a leading KC and a leading public law barrister – have told me that, in light of the party’s refusal to comply with even the most basic of safeguards, evidential and procedural measures to be expected of any quasi-judicial process, they are unable to advise me that I could expect a fair hearing.
Things have reached a very sorry pass when the likely next party of government conducts cases of this gravity in a manner more akin to those of a mismanaged golf club.
Brown was first elected to the Commons in 1983. He was (at least until last year) one of the great survivors of postwar politics, having served as Tony Blair’s chief whip when Blair was first PM, Gordon Brown’s chief whip in the final two years of the Labour government, and then chief whip again under Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer. Including brief spells doing the job under Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband, he has served as chief whip under six Labour leaders.
In his statement, Brown said that, at the age of 73, and with his constituency boundaries being withdrawn, he thought it was the right time to leave parliament.
The Telegraph is also reporting claims that Rishi Sunak’s breakfast meeting at No 10 with Conservative MPs reluctant to vote for the Rwanda bill did not go well. It says:
A former minister said: ‘Views seem to be hardening and more people are planning to vote against rather than abstain, but many will wait to decide later in the day.’
Another Tory source said: ‘[The meeting] didn’t go that well. Rishi was pointing finger at Boris [Johnson], Liz [Truss], Suella [Braverman] and Rob [Jenrick].’
Sunak must call general election if he loses Rwanda bill vote, says Starmer
Q: If the Rwanda bill does pass, how quickly would you repeal it? And if you are in power, will you guarantee not to send anyone to Rwanda.
Starmer says he thinks the bill will go through tonight. The PM has an 80-seat majority. He says they should not allow the PM the indulgence of thinking it will be tight, and giving him credit if it wins.
(Starmer is wrong. Boris Johnson had an 80-seat majority after the 2019 general election, but byelection defeats have reduced it considerably. The Commons website says the government currently has a working majority of 56.)
He says he does not know what will happen to the bill after that.
But, if Labour wins the election, it will focus on a more effective way of dealing with the problem.
If the PM does lose, “of course he should call a general election”, he says.
And that is the end of the Q&A.
Asylum seeker on Bibby Stockholm barge dies
This is what PA Media has filed on the death of an asylum seeker on the Bibby Stockholm barge.
An asylum seeker onboard the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge has died, the PA news agency understands.
The first asylum seekers were brought back to the giant vessel, moored in Portland, Dorset, in October, some two months after it was evacuated following the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the water supply.
Further details of the incident are yet to be confirmed.
Q: In your speech you implied Labour was on the wrong track under Ed Miliband. In that case, why is he serving in your shadow cabinet?
Starmer says Miliband is a very good member of his shadow cabinet. But he was making the point that Labour’s problems did not start with Jeremy Corbyn, he says. They have lost four elections in a row.
