The Know Daily - Tuesday 12 December 2023

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Over the weekend, the comedian Peter Kay staged three “secret and intimate” fundraising shows in his home town of Bolton for the first time in two decades. The sets raised £80,000 for the city’s Octagon theatre - giving the venue a “big boost”, said its chief executive.

🗳️ “Crunch vote” on Rwanda bill 

PM Rishi Sunak is holding a breakfast summit in Downing Street this morning, in a last-minute bid to persuade would-be rebel Conservative MPs to vote for the government’s Rwanda bill.

What’s the story?
The PM is engaged in what The Guardian described as a “desperate lobbying push” to persuade Tory MPs to back his bill and “avoid a defeat that could fatally undermine his authority”.

The Safety of Rwanda Bill - which aims to revive the scheme to deport asylum seekers who arrive by boat to the east African country - faces its “first Parliamentary test” this evening, said the BBC, when MPs get a chance to debate and vote on the legislation.

Why is the bill so divisive?
The Supreme Court ruled last month that the government’s flagship asylum policy was unlawful - and, since then, Sunak has tried to find a “middle ground”, said Sky News. The latest bill declares Rwanda as safe and allows ministers to disapply the UK’s Human Rights Act, but it does not override the European Convention on Human Rights.

Those on the right of the Conservative Party have criticised the bill, saying it risks being blocked by the courts again and needs “major surgery or replacement”. 

But moderates within the party have said that the government must “stick to its guns”, and that any breach of international law would prove “unacceptable”.

What should we look out for today?
As opposition parties are expected to vote against the bill, a revolt by just 29 Tory MPs would be enough to defeat it. Groups on the right of the party have not yet said how they will vote. 

Tonight’s vote “will be the most serious test of the prime minister's leadership since he took office in October last year”, said Sky News.