Prime minister Rishi Sunak said flights to Rwanda have been booked and will take off by July, “no ifs, no buts” at a Downing Street news conference ahead of the Rwanda bill returning to parliament later today.
Mr Sunak told the surprise conference the first flight carrying asylum seekers would leave for Rwanda in 10-12 weeks, despite the problems he has faced passing it into law.
Peers have repeatedly blocked the legislation with a series of amendments, stretching debate on the “emergency legislation” over more than four months and delaying flights taking asylum seekers to Rwanda.
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.
MPs are expected to vote to overturn those changes before sending the bill back to the House of Lords, where some peers may attempt to insist on their amendments again.