UK lawmakers pass a bill to send migrants to Rwanda. But hurdles remain before any flights take off

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers his first major domestic speech of 2023 at Plexal, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Par… LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak quelled a Conservative Party rebellion and got his stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda through the House of Commons on Wednesday. Lawmakers voted 320 to 276 to back a bill intended to overcome a U.K. Supreme Court block on the Rwanda plan. But the contentious immigration policy on which Sunak has staked his authority still faces political and legal hurdles. And Sunak remains at the helm of a divided and demoralized party that is lagging in the polls. The vote came a day after some 60 members of Sunak’s governing Conservatives rebelled in an effort to make the legislation tougher. The dissent cost Sunak two party deputy chairmen, who quit in order to vote against the government. But when it came to a vote on the bill as a whole, the rebellion melted away, and only 11 Conservatives voted against the legislation. A larger rebellion Wednesday would have doomed the Safety of Rwanda Bill, and imperiled Sunak’s 15-month-old government. “It’s this bill or no bill. It’s this bill or no chance,” Conservative lawmaker Bob Seely told colleagues before the vote. The bill now goes to the unelected House of Lords, Parliament’s upper chamber, where it faces more opposition. With polls showing the Conservatives trailing far behind the Labour opposition in opinion polls, Sunak has made the controversial — and expensive — immigration policy central to his attempt to win an election this year. WATCH: Chicago leaders demand help from White House to deal with surge of migrants in city He argues that deporting unauthorized asylum-seekers will deter people from making risky journeys across the English Channel […]

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