Sir Robert Buckland says Tory pushback probable when details get debated, after bill passes second reading
Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, was on government spokesperson duties on behalf of No 10 on the airwaves this morning. As my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, he defended the illegal migration bill – but dodged repeated questions on whether there were any safe and legal routes for refugees from countries such as Iran to come to the UK.
Good morning. The illegal migration bill, the most controversial piece of legislation going through parliament at the moment, and one of the most electorally important to the Conservative party, passed its second reading in the Commons last night, by 312 votes to 250 – a majority of 62. No Tory MP voted against. There were 44 Conservatives who did not vote at all, including the former prime minister Theresa May, who was available to take part in the division because during the debate she gave a powerful speech that rubbished the bill on moral and practical grounds. She and some of the other 44 did not vote because they were abstaining on principle. But many of the others will have had a legitimate reason not to be there. When the strikes bill got a second reading in January, there were 41 Tories who did not vote.
I think a lot of us who decided to allow the principle of the bill to go forward yesterday were doing so upon the basis that this bill will need further work.
As I said, in my speech [in the debate], I said that the issue relating to particularly women and children needs to be directly addressed. I do not support the detention of unaccompanied children or indeed the splitting up of families; that was a government policy that has been followed since 2010.And I think that those parts of the bill should be removed.
Voting to allow the principle of a bill to go forwards is different from the detail of the bill and I would expect it to be scrutinised carefully and for the government to listen to the concerns [of MPs].
I’ve made it very clear that I do not support the detention of children or indeed women in those circumstances and that I think that the government risks looking as if it is guilty of ineffective authoritarianism. That’s something I do not support, and I made it very clear in the house last night.
I’m confident that our bill represents the best way to grip this problem. I’ve also always been clear that there is no … one simple solution to what is a complicated problem. It will take lots of different interventions.
