Rishi Sunak to hold surprise press conference after winning Rwanda vote

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The Prime Minister will chair a press conference at No 9 Downing Street this morning, following his victory in the Commons last night as his Rwanda bill passed third reading.

Rishi Sunak has faced a week of rebellion after 60 of his own Conservative MPs backed rebel amendments to his flagship policy.

You will be able to watch the press conference live on The Independent website.

Although the amendments failed to gather the support needed to pass, rebellions against the bill threatened its survival as Labour had planned to vote against it.

However, only 11 Conservative MPs rebelled, meaning the legislation passed with comfortable majority of 44.

The bill now enters the House of Lords where it is expected to undergo some opposition and further amendments.

Mr Sunak will address the media this morning at around 9.50am, where he is expected to set out further updates to his immigration policy and field questions from journalists.

Though the prime minister has successfully navigated the rebellion, Labour have argued that it has left his authority in “tatters”.

Speaking in the Commons during the third reading of the Bill, the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This chaos leaves the Prime Minister’s authority in tatters, he’s in office but not in power. No one agrees with him on his policy. And the real weaknesses is that he doesn’t even agree with it himself.

“A Prime Minister who is so weak he has lost control of the asylum system, lost control of our borders and lost any control of the Tory party.”

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