A member of the powerful 1922 committee has said she cannot support the Rwanda bill if it remains unamended and did not rule out voting against the entire legislation.
Speaking to GB News, Miriam Cates, the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said:
“There are more amendments to come tomorrow so I will be voting again in favour of the amendments. Those are further amendments to strengthen this Rwanda bill.
“But in terms of third reading, which probably will come at the end of tomorrow, but that's not guaranteed, I feel like I can't support the bill unamended because I don’t think it will work - which is exactly what Lee Anderson said earlier.
“But 24 hours is a long time in politics. We've got another day of debates to come and more amendments.
“I'm very much hoping that the government does come to some accommodation around our amendments or perhaps to produce their own because, at the end of the day, we are on the same page, we want the bill to work.
“The reason we want the bill to work is because we want an effective deterrent to stop people trafficking migrants across the world. We’re only going to get that deterrent if it's not tied up in the courts. That's what these amendments are all about.
“I am prepared to vote against, I’ve said that consistently throughout the day and so have a number of others. But in a way, at the moment, it is just speculation because we've got 70 MPs now voting for the Cash amendment. That's a big number of MPs.
“We've negotiated with the government in good faith, we’ve put forward amendments that do have respectable legal arguments.
“I very much hope now, that having seen the strength of those numbers, the prime minister will very much take this seriously.
“Tomorrow is a new day. We're very much hoping for those concessions, and we'll see what the bill looks like at the end of the day.
“I have full confidence that [Rishi Sunak] absolutely wants to stop the boats. I mean, he could not have said that more times. He has stood in front of a number of podiums and said that.
“We agree with that, and the reason is because our constituents are very concerned about the number of people coming here illegally, the security threat that that poses, the threat of crime and all those other things which are absolutely real concerns for ordinary people - and he understands that."
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