Rishi Sunak has been issued a stark warning over taking an "embarrassing defeat", as MPs weigh up how to vote on his new Rwanda Bill
Rishi Sunak has been issued a stark warning over taking an "embarrassing defeat", as MPs weigh up how to vote on his new Rwanda Bill.
Lawyers examining the Government's new legislation on behalf of right-wing MPs are gearing up to criticise the plans, GB News understands.
The European Research Group, along with the Common Sense Group and the New Conservatives, have convened a so-called 'Star Chamber' of lawyers to examine the legislation.
Their findings will be published before the legislation is voted on by MPs on Thursday, ERG Chairman Mark Francois has said.
MPs on the left of the party, many of them linked to the One Nation caucus of MPs, have also instructed lawyers to look at the legislation.
A source on the right of the party told GB News that Sunak "is in danger of either enacting a piece of legislation which doesnt deliver, or getting into a position where both sets of lawyers oppose the Bill" .
MPs will vote on the legislation next Tuesday.
The Government has denied that next week's vote is a confidence vote, but one Conservative MP warned that a loss in the vote would be "very embarrasing" for Sunak.
But there is a high chance that MPs will vote with the Government on the legislation at this stage of voting, but the PM may be faced with defeat at the later stages of scrutiny.
Conservative MP Philip Davies told GB News that the vote is a "a vote of confidence in the common sense of Conservative backbenchers".
Urging MPs to back the Government, he said: "Every Conservative MP must accept that what is being proposed in this Bill is better than the status quo and so therefore must vote in favour of it.
"And if anyone wants what is proposed toughened up - even though it is difficult to see how - then that can only happen if they vote for the second reading of the Bill next week.
"So I cannot think of any reason at all why any Conservative MP would not support the government in the vote on this Bill next week".
In a statement about the lawyers' analysis of the legsilation, ERG Chairman Mark Francois said: "We all agree with the Prime Minister that we need to stop the boats but the legislation to do this must be assuredly fit for purpose.
"To that end I spoke with Sir Bill Cash, who confirmed his Star Chamber team are already analysing the Rwanda Bill, in detail.
"This may still take a few days to complete but he was confident their findings will be available, at the very latest, prior to the Second Reading debate on Tuesday".
Not a single migrant has yet been sent to Rwanda since the beleaguered scheme was launched.
The Government unveiled new legislation to address the concerns of the Supreme Court after it ruled the scheme illegal in November.
But a source close to former Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned that the legislation will allow "every single illegal migrant to make individual human rights claims", saying it is a "further betrayal of Tory voters".
The source said: "This bill doesn’t come close to meeting Suella’s tests.
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"The PM has kept the ability for every single illegal migrant to make individual human rights claims against their removal and to then appeal those claims if they don’t succeed. It is fatally flawed.
"It will be bogged down in the courts for months…. It won’t stop the boats.
"It is a further betrayal of Tory voters and the decent patriotic majority who want to see this insanity brought to an end."
