Yahoo News Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set for surprise Downing Street conference this morning
Rishi Sunak has scheduled a surprise press conference from Downing Street in which he is expected to address the nation on the Government's controversial Rwanda Plan.
MPs and peers are later tonight also expected to finally pass legislation which could get flights in the air, after delays.
It comes as the Prime Minister struggles to turn around the Tory party's dire opinion poll ratings, braced for the possibility of a leadership challenge by his MPs if the results of May 2's local elections are lacklustre. A difficult by-election is also taking place for Conservatives in Blackpool South on the same day.
Mr Sunak is trying to get the party on the front foot, after MP Mark Menzies announced that he had quit and will not stand at the next election after allegations of misusing campaign funds to pay 'bad people'.
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The Mirror reports that the Rwanda deportation was first announced during Boris Johnson's tenure as Prime Minister back in April 2022. 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 plans to 'stop the boats'.
Peers are said to have blocked the legislation with a number of amendments - stretching debate on the 'emergency legislation' over more than four months, delaying flights taking asylum seekers to Rwanda. Downing Street is hostile to the idea of making concessions to secure the passage of the Bill, leading to a deadlock with Lords.
There's also opposition in the Commons from the right of the Tories, including that of ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman who says the bill is 'fatally flawed'. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today, she said: "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."
Braverman also said that the current bill is vulnerable to 'last-minute injunctions' by the European Court of Human Rights and susceptible to 'illegal claims clogging up the courts' - before restarting calls for the nation to part ways with the European Convention of 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, while allowing ministers to ignore emergency injunctions from the ECHR. Last week witnessed peers amend the Bill to include an exemption for Afghan nationals who helped British troops - and a provision meaning Rwanda could not be treated as safe unless it was deemed so by an independent monitoring body.
MPs are expected to vote to overturn changes this evening, before sending the Bill back to the House of Lords, where some peers may attempt to insist on further amendments. If so, the Bill will return to the Commons for another vote, before returning to the Lords which would last well past the usual 10.30pm finish at the Commons.
