Latest updates: House of Lords debates second reading of illegal migration bill as ministers say public wants to control migration
Good morning. Rishi Sunak will take prime minister’s questions for the first time today since his party suffered huge losses in the huge local elections. Normally, when a governing party faces defeat on a scale like this, there is some form of public backlash from MPs against the leadership. But this time backbenchers have been largely keeping quiet, and the most outspoken Tory critical of Sunak has been David Campbell Bannerman, a former Conservative MEP who used to be in Ukip. (If Sunak were in real trouble, no one would even know what Campbell Bannerman thought, because journalists would be quoting much more prominent figures instead.) At PMQs we will see whether support for Sunak is holding, or whether some of his MPs are starting to speak out.
As PMQs is taking place, peers will be debating the second reading of the illegal migration bill. Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, is among those expected to condemn it. Lord Paddick, the Lib Dem peer, has tabled an amendment saying the bill should not get a second reading because, among other reasons, it “undermines the rule of law by failing to meet the United Kingdom’s international law commitments”. But in the Lords peers almost never vote against a bill at second reading, Labour is not backing the Paddick amendment, and the legislation will go through to its next stages.
It is entirely right that the Lords should scrutinise this important piece of legislation – that is the purpose of parliament’s second chamber. At the same time, it must be balanced against the clear desire of the British people to control immigration. This was a government manifesto commitment in 2019, with a pledge to take back control of our borders.
And yet illegal migration is out of control. It is also intolerably unfair: on taxpayers, on would-be immigrants who do the right thing and play by the rules, on people who see accommodation and public services put under unbearable pressure, and on those sold a dangerous lie by wicked people smugglers.
Continue reading…
