Rishi Sunak has a scrutiny problem

Rishi Sunak is in a hurry to fulfil his ‘five priorities’, especially on small boats. He’s in a hurry because there isn’t much time before the public use the general election to judge how well the Tories are doing. So legislation that promises to ‘stop the boats’ is moving through parliament swiftly. Most people agree that something must be done to prevent the deadly crossings in the Channel. But ministers are trying to get their own version of ‘something’ through parliament so quickly that MPs might not notice whether it will actually make the situation better – or indeed make it worse.

The Illegal Migration Bill has passed its first stage in the Commons, with no Tory MPs voting against it at second reading. Because of the rush with the legislation, it isn’t passing into the normal lengthy committee stage where a small cross-party, politically-weighted group of MPs examine the legislation line-by-line and try to improve it, but to something called a ‘Committee of the Whole House’.