Rishi Sunak pressing ahead with bill to curb small boats

The authorities volition property up with its Illegal Migration Bill, contempt it already suffering 15 defeats successful the Lords, Downing Street has said.

It said the bill, targeting tiny vessel crossings, was the "right approach".

Migrant crossings from France acceptable a caller grounds successful June - pushing the full for the twelvemonth supra 11,000.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York person urged ministers to backmost changes to the authorities to guarantee a "just" and "compassionate" asylum policy.

The premier minister's authoritative spokesperson said helium was not going to respond to idiosyncratic opinions.

But helium said Mr Sunak was "clear that stopping the boats, stopping the cruel rhythm of susceptible radical being exploited by transgression gangs, is the just and compassionate happening to do".

Peers are expected to inflict further defeats connected the authorities arsenic they statement the measure for a 3rd and last time earlier it returns to the Commons.

The authorities has indicated it is acceptable to reverse the Lords' changes to the authorities successful the Commons, wherever they person a ample majority.

The bill, backed by MPs successful March, is cardinal to Rishi Sunak's high-profile pledge to "stop" tiny boats crossing the English Channel - 1 of his 5 cardinal pledges arsenic premier minister.

It would spot a ineligible work connected the authorities to detain and region migrants arriving successful the UK illegally, either to Rwanda oregon different "safe" 3rd country.

The authorities has stressed it remains committed to its program to region migrants to Rwanda, and has said it volition situation a Court of Appeal ruling past week that this was unlawful.

On Tuesday, Mr Sunak told the Liaison Committee of elder MPs the government's lawsuit would beryllium made successful the Supreme Court "confidently and vigorously".

In the archetypal six months of 2023, 11,434 radical were detected making the travel from France, according to provisional Home Office figures.

The June full of 3,824 was the highest since records began successful 2018. In June past year, 3,140 migrants arrived successful the UK aft crossing the Channel.

Despite the grounds June number, the full for the archetypal fractional of the twelvemonth is 10% little than for January-June 2022 (12,747).

In January, Mr Sunak acceptable retired 5 pledges which helium said would code "the people's priorities", including passing caller laws to halt Channel crossings. But helium did not enactment a timescale connected achieving the promise.

Last month, helium insisted his program was "starting to work".

Labour has accused the premier curate of chasing "short-term headlines alternatively of doing the hard enactment needed to tackle the problem".

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "The numbers of unsafe crossings are rising again, edifice costs are spiralling, each portion the government's flagship Rwanda argumentation unravels successful beforehand of their eyes."