RISHI'S RWANDA BILL 'STANDS ON SIDE OF BRITISH PEOPLE'

Tory chairman makes impassioned plea for rebels to back PM's 'decisive' plan

- Steph Spyro

TORY rebels have been urged to back Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan because it stands "on the side of the British people".

Party chairman Richard Holden, writing in the Daily Express, made an impassioned defence of the Bill which clears the way for deportation flights to the East African nation.

He spoke as the Prime Minister's closest supporters urged MPs to unite on the Government's immigration proposals in a crunch vote tomorrow.

Mr Holden praised the Bill as "decisive by the PM", adding: "Rishi Sunak and this Conservative Government pledged that we would stop the boats. Tomorrow, when we introduce our emergency legislation to back the Rwanda plan, we will be hammering home that commitment.

 

"This new Bill addresses the challenges and issues we have faced.

"It will make us able to enforce a proper deterrent to small boat migrants: 'If you come here illegally, you will be detained, and you will be removed'.

"Why should the British taxpayer, or genuine refugees in need, have to bear the costs and consequences of economic migrants paying small fortunes to criminal gangs?

"That's why the Prime Minister has taken this decisive action. So when I vote for a bill tomorrow that makes clear that the British parliament, and no one else, controls our borders, I know I'll be standing on the side of the British people."

Tory big guns urged rebels to stop destructive in-fighting which erupted at the weekend as the Bill angered both the Right and Left of the party.