Tory Rebels....

Most Tory rebels will back Rwanda bill, says rebel source

Harry Farley

Political correspondent

The majority of rebel Conservative MPs have decided to back the government in tonight's final Commons vote on the Rwanda bill, a source has said, after around 40 MPs on the right of the party met at Westminster.

“A small number of colleagues will vote no on a point of principle, but the overwhelming likelihood is that the bill will pass, probably quite comfortably,” the source told reporters gathered outside the meeting in a corridor in the Palace of Westminster.

The rebel source said some MPs saw it as a confidence vote in the government and, “partly for the sake of the parliamentary party and in part because of the consequences for the government”, had decided to back the bill.

“The feeling was that so many colleagues were out of touch with where the country was and that the government was so slanted in the direction of one particular faction that this was as good as the outcome was going to get.”

But the source added: “Nobody in the room thought it [the bill] was going to work.”

They added when the bill returned from the House of Lords, MPs would table further amendments to try to toughen the bill.