Prime Minister's Rwanda bill will 'prevent the deaths of desperate people' in the Channel says Harrogate MP

Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said he supported the legislation to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda because it would deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.

After voting in the House of Commons last night for the Prime Minister’s bill, which had prompted the resignation of three of his colleagues on Tuesday for not being tough enough, Mr Jones said it would “prevent the deaths of desperate people”.

“In 2022 more than 2000 people died in the Mediterranean as they began the hazardous journey they paid people smugglers to facilitate,” said Mr Jones.

"We have seen more deaths in the last week in the Channel.

"We have to prevent the deaths of desperate people by deterring them from starting the journey in the first place.

"If we do so we will break the business model of the criminal gangs who organise this illegal migration.

"It is our government that should determine who comes here not those who profiteer on human misery with no thought for the lives of innocent men, women and children.

“That is in essence why the Rwanda bill should be supported.”

The Government’s Rwanda asylum plan was first launched in April 2022 under then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

So far no asylum seeker has been sent to Rwanda, a small landlocked country in east-central Africa, 4,000 miles from the UK, after a series of legal challenges based on that the policy infringes international law.

As recently as November 2023, the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Rwanda scheme was unlawful on the grounds that genuine refugees sent there would be at risk of being returned to their home countries, where they could face harm.

Judges also cited concerns about Rwanda's poor human rights record and its past treatment of refugees.

Condemned as an “unworkable and chaotic political gimmick” by the Labour opposition, some in Rishi Sunak’s own Government believe the migrant boats bill needs to be toughened further by removing all rights of appeal against deportation by asylum seekers.

A total of 11 Conservative MPs voted against their Prime Minister on the Rwanda bill yesterday, Wednesday, including former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Most of Tuesday’s 60 Tory rebels melted away in order to save the bill – and the Government.

The PM’s bill will next go to the House of Lords where it is likely to face further controversy and another possible battle over amendments.