Reform UK leader Richard Tice has invited Tory Rwanda Bill rebels Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith to join his party. Mr Tice said both MPs would pass Reform UK’s “strict” vetting process.
The move comes after the two senior red-wall MPs resigned from their Conservative Party positions to vote in favour of changes tabled by Sir Bill Cash and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick to Rishi Sunak‘s Safety of Rwanda Bill.
Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-Smith resigned as deputy chairmen to join the biggest Conservative rebellion of the prime minister’s leadership. Mr Sunak is battling against another major revolt on Wednesday (January 17) as MPs decide whether to back legislation aimed at saving the Government’s flagship asylum policy.
Mr Tice told GB News: “I can confirm that Lee and Brendan would both pass our strict vetting process.”
His offer came after the party executed a U-turn by deciding to field a candidate in the upcoming Kingswood by-election, triggered by the resignation of Chris Skidmore.
Former Southampton FC chairman and Brexit Party MEP, Rupert Lowe, is expected to stand for Reform UK in the constituency.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss, former ministers Suella Braverman and Sir Simon Clarke as well as ex-Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith were also among those to support the Rwanda Bill changes.
Boris Johnson, who is no longer an MP but introduced the Rwanda scheme during his premiership, has also backed calls for the Bill to be hardened.
In a bid to unite his party ahead of the crunch vote today, Mr Sunak told the Daily Express: “As a party we have to come together to get this legislation through and put the pressure on Labour who are nowhere near on the issue.”
Senior Tory figures have threatened to vote down the Bill if it is not changed before its third reading.
A Downing Street source said the PM accepted Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-Smith’s resignations and reiterated that they believe the Bill was “the toughest legislation brought before Parliament to tackle illegal migration”.
Mr Sunak had sought to quell the revolt by promising to defy so-called Rule 39 injunctions from Strasbourg, which can block deportation flights from taking off, to get the Rwanda scheme up and running.
But he has stopped short of caving to the demands tabled in the amendments, to do so would risk losing support among the centrist wing of his party which wants to ensure international law is respected.
Opposition critics accused the Prime Minister of weakness and said the resignations showed that “even senior Tories think that the Conservatives have failed”.
But Jeremy Hunt said the revolt by 60 Tory MPs and three resignations was a sign of the “lively debate” within Conservative ranks. Jane Stevenson also quit her role as a parliamentary private secretary in the Department for Business and Trade to back the amendments
The Chancellor insisted Tory MPs are united behind the principle of the scheme, despite Tuesday’s Commons rebellion.
He said: “When you look at what happened in the House of Commons, you can see that the Conservative Party – of course, we have debates about how to get there – but we are the only party that wants to make the Rwanda policy work, wants to have a policy where we are deporting people quickly who arrive here illegally.”
Mr Hunt added: “We are united in the Conservative Party in our belief we need to solve this problem. Of course, we have lively debates inside the party about how to deliver the Rwanda policy.”
