Sunak’s Rwanda Bill finally passes parliament

After eight hours of debate on the Rwanda Bill, peers finally threw in the towel shortly after midnight. The two chambers have been engaged in a mammoth game of ping-pong for the past week, culminating in yesterday’s showdown on two final amendments. On the first of these – Lord Browne’s exemption for Afghan interpreters – the government made a concession shortly before 9 p.m. But on the second – Lord Anderson’s proposed monitoring committee to judge whether Rwanda – they did not. The crossbench peer eventually relented at 11:53p.m, conceding the time was nigh to ‘acknowledge the primacy’ of the elected chamber. And with that, the Rwanda Bill became law, pending Royal Assent from the King.

Among ministers and party managers, there was a sense of relief and pride last night that the much-derided legislation had finally became law. One pointed to the battles over the bill back in December and January, when Mark Francois and the so-called ‘five families’ were urging