Rwanda is an absurd hill for a prime minister to die on

Editorial: Should his beleaguered immigration plans fail to make it through the House of Lords, Rishi Sunak would surely then go to the country to shore up support to ‘Get Rwanda Done’. It would be a lose-lose situation

(Dave Brown)

After surviving the latest skirmish with his hard-right MPs, who are clearly no longer the fearless Spartan force that once they were, the prime minister took to his podium at No 10 and made the most of winning what ought to have been a fairly routine vote on the latest Rwanda bill.

Rishi Sunak called on the august members of the House of Lords, to where the bill is now headed, to “get on board and do the right thing”.

Doing the “right thing” is very much in the unwritten constitutional remit of the noble peers, but they are not there to “get on board” with any scheme being pursued by any government. Mr Sunak pointedly referred to their “appointed” status, and advised them not to defy “the will of the people” as expressed by the democratically elected chamber.