The claim comes after it was revealed the cost of the scheme had almost doubed
The government currently has a working majority of 56 and as yet no Conservative MPs are publicly saying they intend to vote against the Rwanda bill on Tuesday next week, and so at the moment the risk of government defeat seems extremely small.
But Tory MPs on both wings of the party – the rightwingers who want the government to ignore the European convention on human rights on migration policy, and “moderates” who fear the government has already gone too far – have concerns about it, and some of them may be more inclined to abstain than to vote against.
I’m encouraged by something by some of my friends’ legal advice, which is that by leaving in section four of the Human Rights Act, that does overturn some of the more worrying aspects. But I think what I want to do and what a lot of my friends want to do is have the chance to look at it really carefully over the weekend and then make a decision on Monday.
