Prime minister expected to talk about Rwanda bill after it cleared Commons as Tory ‘rebels’ abandoned protest
Good morning. Rishi Sunak is holding a press conference this morning. A note alerting political journalists was sent out by No 10 relatively late last night and, as will be the case every time we get a surprise announcement like this in 2024, one kneejerk lobby response was, ‘Is he going to call an election?’ The answer is no. The best evidence for this is probably the latest YouGov polling in the Times today, showing Labour 27 points ahead (but the steer from No 10 says the same).
Instead, we are expecting Sunak to talk about the Rwanda bill, which cleared the Commons last night by a comfortable margin as the Tory “rebels” largely abandoned their protest and accepted the argument that a “weak” Rwanda bill (in their opinion) was better than no bill at all, the sinking of Sunak’s premiership and a probable early election. There were big revolts on the rebel Tory amendments, but after two days of debates Sunak emerged looking stronger than the “five family” leaders who were threatening. to take the bill down. This is from the Scotsman’s Alexander Brown on Lee Anderson, who resigned as Tory deputy chair on Tuesday, releasing a letter expressing his “100% support” for Sunak almost exactly at the same time as he was voting against the government, but who on Wednesday abstained on the third reading.
