Government suffers fourth Rwanda bill defeat, with peers voting to say Rwanda can be ruled unsafe for some refugees The government lost the fourth vote too, by 263 votes to 233 – a majority of 30. This means amendment D1 passes, saying ministers or immigrations officials should have the power under the bill to say that Rwanda is not a safe country for a particular person, or group of people. That is the smallest opposition majority tonight. A summary of today"s developments The government suffered seven defeats in the House of Lords on Wednesday over its contentious Rwanda bill. Peers voted in favour of amendments including to exempt people from deportation to Rwanda if they have assisted British troops and to exempt victims of modern slavery. The Lords also backed amendments for age assessments tests on unaccompanied children to be carried out by local authorities, applying the balance of probabilities burden of proof. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, believes the government would bring the Rwanda Bill back next week to “get on with it” if it were ready to implement its deportation scheme. Cooper said: “The half a billion pound Rwanda scheme is a failing farce, which will only cover less than 1% of asylum arrivals.” According to Katy Balls from the Spectator, Rishi Sunak told Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee: The PM said: “We are in the fight of our lives. This battle will define us, when the going got tough, when the polls were against us did we dig deep and fight or did we turn in on ourselves?” The Department of Health and Social Care published its tobacco and vapes bill, the legislation that will very gradually ban smoking by ensuring that children turning 15 this year or younger will never legally be able to be sold tobacco. Vaughan Gething used his first speech in the Senedd after being formally nominated as first minister of Wales to accuse the UK government of “unprecedented hostility” to devolution. He declared: “In recent years we have pushed the boundaries of what is possible with devolution. We did it, for example, to keep Wales safe [during Covid]. “But in that same period, we have seen unprecedented hostility towards democratic Welsh devolution from a UK government determined to undermine, frustrate and bypass the Welsh government and this Senedd. As well as leaving Wales with less say over less money, it is deeply corrosive, wasteful and undemocratic.” Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda deportation bill is expected to be put on hold until at least next month after the House of Lords inflicted seven defeats on Wednesday. The safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill, which aims to block Strasbourg from halting the removal of asylum seekers to east Africa, is not expected to return to the Commons until after the Easter break. Any delay could make it increasingly difficult to fulfil the prime minister’s plan to see flights take off for Kigali by the spring. The legislation is central to the Conservative government’s pledge to “stop the boats”. Ministers have claimed that the bill will deter people from travelling across the Channel. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, believes the government would bring the Rwanda Bill back next week to “get on with it” if it were ready to implement its deportation scheme. Commenting after peers inflicted a fresh defeat against the policy in the Lords, Cooper said: “The half a billion pound Rwanda scheme is a failing farce, which will only cover less than 1% of asylum arrivals. “It is clearer than ever that Rishi Sunak knows this plan won’t work and only sees it as a political gimmick to get what the former immigration minister described as ‘symbolic flights off just before an election’. “If the Conservatives were ready to implement this, they would be bringing the Bill back to complete the remaining stages next week and get on with it. “But because their plans aren’t ready, they’ve decided to delay the Bill as well, so they can try to blame everyone else for the chaos they have created, and the fact that they haven’t got a proper plan.” In an interview with the BBC’s Faisal Islam, the prime minister Rishi Sunak was asked for a timeframe on abolishing employers National Insurance. Sunak said: “The first thing to explain is, you know, why have we been cutting national insurance? And it’s because like I said, I believe very much in hard work. And that’s why actually, it’s four years today that, you know, I created the furlough scheme or announced the furlough scheme.” Sunak added: “Now, we have a situation at the moment, which isn’t fair, because if for someone in work, they pay tax twice, once in income tax and then once in national insurance. So there’s a double tax on work, which doesn’t apply to other forms of income. That’s not fair. “But it’s also complicated unnecessarily, all that money goes into effectively the same pot to fund the same public services. So you know, ultimately our long term plan is to remove that double taxation on work because that will be a simpler, fairer tax system.” When asked if it would abolished in one parliament, the PM said: “No, no, I think we need to stick to the plan. And we can make progress towards that goal in the next parliament. “But what I’d say here is that judge me on my track record, we’re only going to do these things responsibly.” After the Commons previously rejected the proposal to exempt people from deportation if they have assisted British troops, arguing that such people should come to the UK by safe and legal routes, Lord Browne added a caveat to his H1 amendment that they should give notice before arriving in the UK. Government suffers seventh defeat in Lords on Rwanda bill The contents voted 248 while the not-contents voted 209 so the Lords votes in favour of Amendment H1 to exempt people from deportation if they have assisted British troops. Peers are now voting on a motion to approve the final amendment, H1. H1, tabled by Des Browne, a Labour former defence secretary, would exempt people from deportation if they have assisted British troops. Government suffers sixth defeat in Lords on Rwanda bill The contents voted 251 while the not-contents voted 214 so the Lords votes in favour of G1 to exempt victims of modern slavery from deportation to Rwanda. Peers are now voting on a motion to approve Amendment G1. G1, tabled by Lady Butler-Sloss, would exempt victims of modern slavery from deportation to Rwanda. Government suffers fifth defeat in Lords on Rwanda bill The contents voted 249 while the not-contents voted 219 so amendment E1 is approved. Peers are now voting on a motion to approve Amendment E1. E1, tabled by Labour’s Ruth Lister, would say that age assessments tests on unaccompanied children should be carried out by local authorities, applying the balance of probabilities burden of proof. A Labour peer who fled to Britain on the Kindertransport scheme said that sending children who have been wrongly assessed as adults to Rwanda would be “an appalling dereliction of our responsibilities to vulnerable young people”, Lord Dubs said: “This House has consistently supported the rights of children in relation to asylum, these are the most vulnerable people in the whole of the asylum system. “If a mistake is made the consequences will be out of all proportion to the damage if a mistake is made in the other direction. “That is to say, to send a child wrongly assessed as being an adult to Rwanda would be an appalling dereliction of our responsibilities to vulnerable young people.” Lord Coaker, the shadow home office minister, said the government has “got itself in a right mess” over the Bill. He added the government is delaying its own legislation by delaying MPs voting on the Bill until after Easter rather than next Tuesday. Aubrey Allegretti from the Times has more from Rishi Sunak’s meeting with the 1922 Committee. It wasn’t all plain sailing for the PM As @SamCoatesSky picked up on, Jake Berry challenged the PM over briefings against him over the weekend that the former party chair alleged came from No 10. Berry said he was loyal and had not put in a letter of no confident but demanded… That’s all from me for tonight. Nadeem Badshah is taking over now. Sunak tells Tory MPs they face "fight of our lives" and urges them not to turn on each other According to Katy Balls from the Spectator, Rishi Sunak told Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee: We are in the fight of our lives. This battle will define us, when the going got tough, when the polls were against us did we dig deep and fight or did we turn in on ourselves?’ John Crace thinks he knows the answer. Ken Clarke, the Tory former chancellor who has been a strong opponent of the Rwanda bill (despite originally supporting the Rwanda policy), is the only Conservative who has voted with the opposition tonight. He voted against the government on amendment B1 (see 5.45pm) and amendment B2 (see 6.02pm). Peers are now debating three more amendments to the Rwanda bill. One, E1, tabled by Labour’s Ruth Lister, would say that age assessments tests on unaccompanied children should be carried out by local authorities, applying the balance of probabilities burden of proof. Another, G1, tabled by Lady Butler-Sloss, a former lord justice of appeal, would exempt victims of modern slavery from deportation to Rwanda. And the third, H1, tabled by Des Browne, a Labour former defence secretary, would exempt people from deportation if they have assisted British troops. The government is opposing all three amendments. Government suffers fourth Rwanda bill defeat, with peers voting to say Rwanda can be ruled unsafe for some refugees The government lost the fourth vote too, by 263 votes to 233 – a majority of 30. This means amendment D1 passes, saying ministers or immigrations officials should have the power under the bill to say that Rwanda is not a safe country for a particular person, or group of people. That is the smallest opposition majority tonight.