Veteran MP Sir Bill Cash is set to lead a pivotal debate on sovereignty in the parliamentary chamber on Tuesday, with around 60 MPs already backing his proposed hardline amendments to the Rwanda bill, a number he suggested could swell to 70 by Monday evening.
Figures from the so-called “Five Families” of right-leaning Conservative party factions have supported amendments by Sir Bill and consulting lawyers, who are aiming to push for a harder line of policy on UK sovereignty over the Rwanda immigration policy and independence from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
A source close to the Democratic Unionist Party has confirmed the party’s support for the amendments to The Epoch Times, adding weight to the growing dissent within the Conservative Party.
Tory concerns over Reform UK’s impact on the Conservative majority, particularly in the Red Wall, loom large, prompting a call from Sir Bill for unity in the face of what he deems the Labour Party’s “deceitful” and “disastrous” policies.
Sir Bill, who has served as an MP since 1984, told The Epoch Times that he was in “constant communication” with Number 10 and had been having meetings with them for the last month.
Tory Leadership ‘Buffeted’
Sir Bill said, “It’s just that we’ve got some rather buffeted leadership in the Conservative Party.”
“The problem is that we’ve got a difficulty with indecision, some bad advisers, and also bad lawyers. And the bottom line is that we’re caught in that kind of trap at the moment. But I think we will actually achieve our objectives eventually, but it’s just taking longer than I would want. I’ve been fighting this for 40 years, as you probably know.”
On the position of UK sovereignty following Brexit, Sir Bill said: “We’re not affected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights, we can sort out the immigration issue. That’s the frustration for me.
“The other countries in Europe can’t do anything of the kind. I mean, international law is embedded in the German constitution … They cannot change their position on international law, or the rules of international law, which affects the Refugee Convention and all these other things. They cannot do it full stop without changing their constitution.
“It says again in this bill that sovereignty is recognised. Sovereignty is the most important reason for the laws that are made. Because if you’ve got sovereignty and you’re not … subjugated to the European Union as we were in the ‘72 act, we are now able to make our own laws completely, totally freely.”
A Tory Party insider lauded Sir Bill’s well-organised campaign, acknowledging widespread support for the proposed changes. They told The Epoch Times that Sir Bill’s campaign was going “very well” and appeared to be “very well organised,” with several MPs confirming they would be backing the amendments.
Sir Bill also claimed that the Labour Party is “deceitful, betraying the country’s interests,” and added that should Sir Keir Starmer’s party achieve power, their policies would be “disastrous” economically, especially with regards to the EU and the ECHR.
MP Calls for No-Confidence Vote
In a weekend filled with political turmoil ahead of the debate and vote on the third reading of the government’s Rwanda immigration bill, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has faced strong criticism from within his own party.MP Andrea Jenkyns, speaking to the Express on Monday, stated her concerns about Mr. Sunak’s leadership, saying, “I put in my letter [of no-confidence] in November, this has been coming for a while now. He’s not going to win us an election, we’re walking into a Labour victory.”
Ms. Jenkyns further expressed apprehension about the government’s proposed change in the voting age, asserting, “I fear that, the changing of the voting age, it’s going to be hard to get any form of Conservative government in office again when they do stuff like that.”
She advocated for a new leader, stating, “I think he’s not going to win us an election, wake up and smell the coffee, let’s get a new leader, last-ditch attempt because we’ve got nothing to lose now.”
Adding to the dissent within the Conservative ranks, leaders of prominent right-leaning Tory factions Danny Kruger, Sir John Hayes, and Mark Francois, representing the New Conservatives, The Common Sense Group, and the European Recovery Group respectively, issued a warning to Mr. Sunak in The Sunday Telegraph.
The trio conveyed their concerns about the Rwanda immigration bill, stating, “As the leaders of the three largest groups of Conservative MPs on the conservative wing of the parliamentary party, we have united in recent weeks to express our fear that the Safety of Rwanda Bill fails to do that.”
The socially conservative MPs outlined two key concerns with the current draft of the bill. Firstly, they pointed out that the bill does not explicitly grant ministers the authority to disregard the ECHR’s “pyjama injunctions,” so-called because they’re granted at late hours.
Tory Hardliners Warn Sunak
Firing a warning shot at Mr. Sunak, they invoked the historical moment in 2019 when the Brexit “spartans” stood firm against former Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, leading to a Conservative election victory.The Tory hardliners urged their colleagues to stand with the British people, emphasising the overwhelming support for robust action against illegal migration.
Old-school Brexiteers like Sir Bill have also been keen to point out that the newfound sovereignty of lawmaking post-Brexit has been the key to being able to act on issues like immigration.
Speaking to The Epoch Times ahead of a final rally for signatures from supportive parliamentarians, Sir Bill said: “We’ve got rid of the supremacy of EU law … that stupid law passed by Theresa May [saying] that we’re going to have to have a thing called EU Retained Law—we’ve got rid of that too.
“The Rwanda judgment actually dismissed one of the claims, because of the EU Retained Law Act, which I fought, with [Sir] Jacob Rees-Mogg, to get through [it passed in 2023]. When we'd done that, then we got rid of the principles of the supremacy of EU law from British law. That is a bit of a complicated argument, but what it means is that we can make our own laws.”
“We’re back to a point since we left the European Union of being able to pass our own laws in any shape or form we wish. And that includes overriding international treaties … It is an embedded and completely unassailable law that if Parliament passes an act of Parliament with clear and unambiguous words, the courts will always obey them.”
“I wanted to ask the question: which do you prefer—being governed by your own Parliament with your own voters, and them passing statutes freely? Or do you want to be run by a council of ministers run behind closed doors, by a majority vote of the other countries who couldn’t give a fig about you?”
As rhetoric intensifies ahead of the main debate on the Rwanda Bill on Tuesday, Mr. Sunak will be hoping that he can stave off a full-scale rebellion from both the right of the party and the more liberal wing of the party, embodied by the over 100-strong One Nation Tory faction, which is pressing for a more moderate approach, guided by international law.
