Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith have resigned as deputy leaders of the Conservative Party after rebelling against Rishi Sunak in supporting a right-wing challenge to strengthen the Rwanda expulsion bill.
Two senior Red Wall MPs led a revolt of 60 Tories to vote in favor of a series of right-wing amendments, damaging his authority in the biggest revolt of the Prime Minister's leadership.
Speaking to GB News after the vote, Mr Anderson said: I'm not in a position to vote for something I don't believe in. ”
It also foreshadows another battle in the Commons on Wednesday, when MPs vote on the crucial third reading of the Rwanda Bill, with around a dozen Conservatives already voting against the bill. He has publicly announced that he intends to vote. It only takes 29 rebels to collapse.
However, there was little sign of panic given the scale of the rebellion. Government insiders suggested that right-wing forces do not yet have the numbers or inclination to deal a politically fatal blow to Mr. Sunak.
The first rebellion comes after 60 Tory MPs introduced Bill 10, introduced by veteran Tory Bill Cash, which would prevent them from using British and international law to prevent or delay deportations to Rwanda. This happened after voting in favor of changing the Article.
The second is former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick's Amendment 19, which is aimed at severely restricting the ability of individual asylum seekers to appeal if they are unable to get on a plane to Rwanda. This was due to the support of
The rebels included former home secretary Suella Braverman, Jenrick and former prime minister Liz Truss, as well as dozens of right-wingers. However, both amendments were rejected due to opposition from the Labor Party.
Kemi Badenoch's political private secretary, Jane Stevenson, also resigned after voting against the party whip. The business secretary has reportedly asked the prime minister to strengthen legislation, including preventing immigrants from personally appealing their deportations.
The resignations came after the most senior judge in England and Wales criticized Mr Sunak's plans to recruit and train 150 judges to help implement his Rwanda plan.
Chief Justice Dame Sue Kerr said decisions about how judges are allocated should be “solely a judicial matter” and the plans outlined by the government would bring “issues of judicial accountability” into the political arena. He added that he was bringing it.
Lord Chancellor and Attorney-General Alex Chalk has called for new courts to expand court capacity and speed up asylum claims in a bid to win support from right-wing Conservative MPs who will decide whether to fight the bill. It had previously announced plans to hire civil servants.
In a joint resignation letter released shortly after the vote, Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-Smith said they had consistently insisted that the Rwandan government's legislation should be complete. “So from a reliability standpoint, it's important that we're consistent with this.”
They suggested that the Rwandan law was unworkable in its current form, and critics argued it would be challenged in court through separate challenges.
“Two bills have already been blocked by a system that does not work in the UK’s favor,” they wrote.
“This is why we supported the amendments to the Rwanda Bill. This is not because we are opposed to this law, but because we want it to work just like everyone else. It’s from.”
But in a sign that their criticism was of the bill rather than the sunak, the pair toned down their criticism of the Prime Minister and praised his work on “illegal immigration”. “The last thing either of us wants to do is distract from this,” they said.
Mr Anderson, a former Labor MP with a reputation as an aggressive Tory attacker and culture warrior who receives £100,000 a year as a presenter on GB News, voted in favor of the Rebel amendment. He warned that the government would take action against the government.
Even if the bill is not amended, it is unclear how many Tory rebels will vote against it on third reading, given Mr Sunak's high stakes. Asked about the scale of the potential uprising, right-winger Marc Francois said: “The numbers speak for themselves.”
He told Sky News: “I'm very hopeful that the government will listen and as a result…the government will listen and consider it and potentially strengthen the bill tomorrow.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed calls by Conservative rebels to strengthen the Rwanda expulsion bill by directly intervening with those rebelling against his successor.
On X, the former prime minister reposted an article by former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, who described the bill as a “flawed measure” and warned he would not support it unless it was amended.
Mr Johnson remains an influential figure on the party's right wing, particularly in the “red wall” seats the Conservatives first won in 2019, and said: “This bill must be as legally robust as possible, and the right path is to adopt the amendments.”
Speaking in the House of Commons during the debate, Mr Clark told MPs: As members of Congress, do we mean what we say?
“Are our words worth anything? Are we capable of asserting our national sovereignty as a nation? Can we as a nation secure our borders?
“I welcome the fact that the Government has now decided that parts of the Human Rights Act 1998 need to be exempted. This is welcome, courageous and commendable. But we now need to follow that logic to its conclusion. ”
Labor said the Conservative resignations showed even party leaders believed the party had failed. Pat McFadden, the party's national campaign co-ordinator, said: “Rishi Sunak is too weak to lead the party and too weak to lead the country.
“These resignations show that even Conservative Party leaders think the Conservative Party has failed, and are further evidence of the Conservative party’s utter confusion over the failure of the Rwanda operation, but they remain is forcing taxpayers to pay an exorbitant price.”
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: “Mr Sunak's Rwanda plan is simply not going to work – and even his party's deputy chairman knows it. He has once again been embarrassed by his own MPs. If he cannot even resolve disputes, how can we expect him to run the country?”
