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Rishi Sunak sidesteps questions on small boat Channel crossings Rishi Sunak angrily defends Commons absences in session with MPs
(about 1 hour later)
Prime minister also faced questions at home affairs committee on Rwanda deportations Prime minister accused at liaison committee hearing of not turning up to PMQs and avoiding sensitive votes
Rishi Sunak has declined to say when he hopes to fulfil his pledge to stop small boat crossings over the Channel or to set out how many people could be deported to Rwanda, as he was questioned by the liaison committee of senior MPs. Rishi Sunak has angrily denied being an absentee prime minister who routinely misses Commons scrutiny and sensitive votes as he endured sometimes turbulent questioning from senior MPs.
Under questioning from Diana Johnson, the Labour MP who chairs the home affairs committee, the prime minister indicated that any progress in reducing the flow of people making unofficial crossings from France depended on the supreme court allowing the Rwanda deportation to proceed. Quizzed by Chris Bryant as part of a grilling by the liaison committee, Sunak defended his plan to miss the next two prime minister’s questions, a timetable that Labour said would give him the lowest attendance record at weekly PMQs for any prime minister since 1979.
Last week, the court of appeal ruled that the plan to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda, intended to be a disincentive to those crossing the Channel, was unlawful. Ministers now plan to seek the view of the supreme court. In openly hostile exchanges with Bryant, Sunak defended missing votes on potential punishments for Boris Johnson and the former minister Owen Paterson, and said he had not yet fully read last week’s six-page report into attacks on the privileges committee by a series of Conservative MPs and peers.
Questioned by Johnson as to whether he had a plan for stopping boat crossings, one of his key five pledges made six months ago, if the supreme court did not support the government, Sunak dodged the question. Sunak also declined to say when he hoped to fulfil his pledge to stop small boat crossings over the Channel, and discussed how artificial intelligence could help teachers mark homework.
“Our belief remains that the plan that we have is legal. It’s compliant with all our obligations, and we’ll be appealing it vigorously,” he said. Sunak will miss PMQs this Wednesday, when he attends an NHS event, and next week when he will be at the Nato summit, with Labour saying his overall attendance would dip below 80%.
Asked by Johnson if that meant he was “betting everything” on a positive court verdict, he said: “That’s not that’s not a fair characterisation of what we’re doing. Last year, and indeed this year, I set out a range of things we’re doing to tackle this problem.” Bryant asked Sunak if he knew when a prime minister had last missed two sessions in a row. Sunak replied: “I don’t know, but what I think is important – is the honourable gentleman suggesting that I don’t attend the Nato summit, which I’m not being controlled on the dates of?”
Sunak pointedly declined to say when he believed his pledge might be met, linking it to the court case: “So obviously the court will have to determine its own ruling, and that is outside of the government’s hands. It’s the court that determines the timing, but in the meantime, we can get on with a range of other things, as I said.” In earlier questioning, Sunak said AI in schools could be “transformational” in saving teachers time and providing more personalised learning. He said: “In education, [it has] the opportunity to reduce the workload for teachers, whether it’s lesson planning or marking, but then also provide personalised tuition for children.”
Addressing the liaison committee, which groups together the chairs of the various subject-specific Commons select committees, Sunak also avoided Johnson’s question of where the more than 7,600 migrants and refugees who had crossed the Channel since the Rwanda policy become law would go, given Rwanda has said it can currently take 500 of them. Under questioning from Diana Johnson, the Labour MP who chairs the home affairs committee, Sunak indicated that any progress in reducing the flow of people making unofficial crossings from France depended on the supreme court allowing the Rwanda deportation plan to proceed, after the court of appeal said last week that it was unlawful.
Sunak pointedly declined to say when he believed his “stop the boats” pledge, one of five key promises, might be met: “So obviously the court will have to determine its own ruling, and that is outside of the government’s hands. It’s the court that determines the timing, but in the meantime, we can get on with a range of other things, as I said.”
Sunak also avoided Johnson’s question of where the more than 7,600 migrants and refugees who had crossed the Channel since the Rwanda policy become law would go, given Rwanda has said it can take 500 of them.
“I’m not going to talk about a private commercial contract that we have, but our Rwanda scheme, as we have said multiple times, is uncapped … which is why I believe it can act as a very helpful deterrent when the scheme is up and running,” he said.“I’m not going to talk about a private commercial contract that we have, but our Rwanda scheme, as we have said multiple times, is uncapped … which is why I believe it can act as a very helpful deterrent when the scheme is up and running,” he said.
Similarly, he was vague about when the backlog of unprocessed asylum claims, currently over 70,000, would be completed, talking only about “progress that has already been made”. Sunak was also vague when challenged over whether his government would now miss its target to halve inflation, another of his five pledges, saying he would “leave that to the forecasters”.
Sunak was also vague when challenged over whether his government would now miss its target to halve inflation, saying he would “leave that to the forecasters”.
He acknowledged that inflation was “proving more persistent than people anticipated” but insisted that did not mean his policy choices were “the wrong ones. Indeed, they’re the right ones.”He acknowledged that inflation was “proving more persistent than people anticipated” but insisted that did not mean his policy choices were “the wrong ones. Indeed, they’re the right ones.”
He added: “We just need to continue to stick to the course and that’s not easy. That involves difficult decisions, but those are the right long-term decisions for the country …” He told the Treasury select committee chair, Harriett Baldwin: “We just need to continue to stick to the course and that’s not easy. That involves difficult decisions, but those are the right long-term decisions for the country.”
Sunak said he was “working 100%” to deliver the policy and would “just keep throwing everything at it”, deploying all the levers at the government’s disposal. In a session during which the MPs repeatedly tried to get Sunak to directly answer questions, with mixed success, the prime minister studiously avoided any comment on Boris Johnson’s controversial resignation peerages.
Pressed by Treasury select committee chair, Harriett Baldwin, whether there was now a higher chance of the inflation target being missed, he said he wouldn’t spend his time on what he couldn’t control. “What I can control is what we’re doing,” he added. Sunak told William Wragg, the Conservative MP who chairs the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, that he had followed constitutional convention by not amending the vetted list and had “no active involvement or engagement in that process”.
Asked about Liz Truss’s resignation honours, Sunak said her list had not yet reached his desk.