James Heale

After the resignation of Robert Jenrick last night, Rishi Sunak sought to get on the front foot this morning with a press conference in No. 10. The Prime Minister cut a somewhat frustrated figure as he defended his new Rwanda legislation, insisting that it ‘blocks every single reason that has ever been used to prevent flights.’ ‘The only extremely narrow exception will be if you can prove with credible and compelling evidence that you specifically have a real and imminent risk of serious and irreversible harm’ Sunak told reporters. If the government face challenges from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Sunak repeated that he would not allow a foreign court to block flights.

Three weeks after the Prime Minister's ‘emergency legislation’ to make the Rwandan scheme viable, tonight it is finally here. The seven-page Bill was published shortly before Rishi Sunak's address to the 1922 Committee and James Cleverly's statement to the House of Commons. The Bill's solution to the Supreme Court verdict last month is to disapply elements of the Human Rights Act which would have exposed the government to legal challenges, while also declaring in law that Rwanda is a 'safe country.' It will let ministers override European Court of Human Rights edicts to block planes from taking off – like the so-called 'pyjama injunctions' of June 2022.

'Migration to this country is far too high and it needs to come down', began James Cleverly at the despatch box this afternoon. It has been a difficult three weeks since his appointment as Home Secretary, with the Supreme Court's rejection of the Rwanda scheme and then the publication of record migration numbers. It was the latter subject of legal migration that dominated this afternoon's debate in the Commons, ahead of Cleverly's expected visit to Kigali in the coming days. The Home Secretary's tone was hawkish on the subject, with repeated reference to migration being too high. That reflects a concern in his party that Rishi Sunak's government is too blasé about the 1.2 million people who arrived in the country between June 2022 and June 2023.

It can be difficult sometimes to declare a victor at Prime Minister's Questions. Exchanges are often hard-fought, even-handed affairs in which neither opponent really lands a blow. But today was not such a day, with Keir Starmer recording the parliamentary equivalent of a three-nil thumping at the despatch box. Rather than dwell on last week's Autumn Statement, Starmer opted to focus on record migration figures instead – a sensible move, given the very public Tory divides. With polls pointing to its increasing salience as a political issue, the Labour leader laid into the government, repeatedly punching a self-inflicted Conservative bruise.

There were few surprises when Jeremy Hunt presented his second Autumn Statement to the House of Commons this afternoon: National Insurance has been cut and the state pension and benefits will rise. The Chancellor is hoping that these measures will woo voters ahead of next year's election. But while Hunt tried to paint an image of the economy being back on track, there were some nasty surprises in the updated forecasts released by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Although growth has been revised up this year to 0.6 per cent, it has been downgraded for the following three years, rising to 2 per cent in 2027. Inflation is meanwhile forecast to drop to 2.8 per cent by the end of 2024, down from 4.6 per cent recorded in October.