Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to hold surprise Downing Street press conference

The Prime Minister has called a surprise press conference in Downing Street. Rishi Sunak is expected to speak about the Government’s long-delayed Rwanda plan as he addresses the nation later this morning (Monday, April 22).

Later tonight, MPs and peers could finally pass legislation that could get flight in the air, the Mirror reports. The news comes as Mr Sunak is struggling to turn around the Conservative Party ’s opinion poll ratings. The PM could face a leadership challenge by his MPs if the results of local elections on May 2 don't favour the Tories.

It has been two years since the Rwanda deportation was first announced under Boris Johnson's leadership. The Government has vowed to keep Parliament sitting late into the night if necessary to pass the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which it sees as vital to Mr Sunak's "stop the boats" pledge.

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The legislation has been repeatedly blocked by peers, with a series of amendments stretching debate on the "emergency legislation" over more than four months and delaying flights taking asylum seekers to Rwanda. Downing Street is said to be hostile to the idea of making concessions to secure the passage of the Bill, leading to a deadlock with the Lords.

The Bill was "fatally flawed" according to former Home Secretary Suella Braverman. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Unfortunately I voted against the legislation because I think it's fatally flawed. I don't think it's going to stop the boats, and that's the test of its efficacy."

Ms Braverman said there were also "too many loopholes" in the legislation, which would prevent it from having the "deterrent effect that is necessary to break the people smuggling gangs, to send the message to the illegal migrants that it's not worth getting on a dinghy in the first place because you're not going to get a life in the UK".

She said the current Bill was vulnerable to "last-minute injunctions" by the European Court of Human Rights. She also said it was susceptible to "illegal claims clogging up the courts" as she restated her calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. The Bill is intended to overcome the objections of the Supreme Court by forcing judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country for asylum seekers and allowing ministers to ignore emergency injunctions from the European Court of Human Rights.