Illegal Immigration Bill Ping Pong

Published on by jonesjb
On Tuesday the Commons disagreed all the amendments from the Lords and returned the Illegal Immigration Bill in the first round of Ping Pong. There was poor attendance in the Commons, where the Government’s majority ensure their dominance, but then good attendance in the Lords for last night’s debate and votes. The debate didn’t start until 8pm when the list of Commons amendments had only just been printed and our Green Peer Natalie Bennett tried to stop this crucial debate starting so late in the day.

Jenny said ” There are three reasons we should be stubborn about not allowing the Bill to go through. The first is that this was not in the Tory Party manifesto: we do not have a duty to pass it. Secondly, Rwanda is not a safe country. Thirdly, we cannot pass legislation that allows the Government to break the law; that does not make sense.”
 
The Government lost all nine votes last night and the House then adjourned at 00.28am, when 261 peers had to get home, many of them over 70 years old, some with a journey of an hour or more. The Lords amendments are listed below.
 

Lords Amendments

Topic

Lords mover

1B

UK obligations

Baroness Chakrabarti

7B

Interim relief

Baroness Chakrabarti

9B

Inadmissible claims

Lord German

23B

Removal destinations LGBT and other persons

Lord Etherton

36C and 36D

Unaccompanied children

Baroness Mobarik

33B

72 hour time limit

Bishop of Manchester

56B

Modern slavery

Lord Randall

90D

Interim remedies

Baroness Chakrabarti

102B

Safe and legal routes

Baroness Stroud

103B

National Crime Agency

Lord Coaker

107B and 107C

Ten year strategy 

Archbishop of Canterbury 

The Bill now returns to the Commons on Monday where the Government will no doubt once again remove the Lords amendments and insert it’s own new ones before returning the Bill to the Lords the same day. Both Houses have set aside time to continue Ping Pong on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, with the Government intent on forcing this Bill through before recess.

Amnesty International explain how awful the Bill is here