Sunak set for final game of Rwanda ping pong

Parliament’s return from recess this week means the Rwanda Bill is now back in the Commons for the final game of ping pong. Rwanda has previously dominated the news agenda whenever it is debated in parliament. But this week it is expected – by both supporters and opponents of the scheme – to feature far less heavily in the headlines. A good indication of where MPs’ minds are at is to look at the predominant focus on policing, rather than migration, in this afternoon’s Home Office questions.

One government source referred to this week as ‘process-y’, with a Rwanda sceptic conceding that ‘a horrible sense of inevitability hangs over the final stages of this process.’ After the titanic battles of December and January, in which both the Tory right and the opposition parties fulminated against this bill, the Whips’ Office is expecting a relatively straightforward few days. ‘The dye is cast’, admits one Tory rebel.