Senior Tories from across the party are warning that Rishi Sunak’s emergency Rwanda plan will never become law in its current form, ahead of the most critical vote of his premiership.
Liberal Tories confirmed last night that, despite their desire to back the PM against the right, “serious concerns” remain about the plan and more reassurances will be required. Meanwhile, a self-styled “star chamber” of legal figures examining the proposals for the Tory right is understood to have found problems that are “extremely difficult to resolve”.
It means that, despite Tory whips believing they will have enough support to win the first vote over the proposals on Tuesday, there is nervousness among moderate Tories that Sunak is set on a course that has united his opponents and will ultimately imperil his leadership. “This is a bit like Brexit in the sense that it will have the effect of drawing the whole of the right together,” one influential figure on the right said. “It is the uniting of the right.”
It sounds like a good idea but, without an ever-growing backlog of claimants, how do you create the notion that this is a massive problem in order to grab votes?