17 spirited responses to the Tories throwing a drinks party during the Rwanda Bill debate
Rishi Sunak‘s flagship Rwanda Bill is finally set to become law after the House of Lords threw in the towel following a very long session of parliamentary ping pong on Monday.
Rwanda bill an expensive & self defeatingly cruel symbol of damage Tory Governments do.
It won’t stop boats, will waste millions of taxpayer cash & still refugees will be at risk of harm under our watch. No one wins tonight. Our nation just loses more.
General election now.
— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) April 22, 2024
In a speech ahead of the debate, Sunak had pledged to get the bill through the House no matter how long the session took.
"Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes," Rishi Sunak says
The PM adds "no foreign court will stop us getting flights off"
Follow live https://t.co/KbrR9joMNI pic.twitter.com/xEsp6rQhXR
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 22, 2024
It’s an oddly unpopular policy on which to hang his legacy, and widely believed to be unlikely to deter either asylum seekers or people traffickers.
It is well known that the Prime Minister & the Home Secretary consider the Rwanda bill, respectively, appalling value for money & ‘batshit crazy’. The deputy Foreign Secretary wrote, just two years ago, of its absurd cost & cruel abuse of genuine asylum seekers.
But here we are.— James O'Brien (@mrjamesob) April 22, 2024
Saying you’ll keep sending flights to Rwanda until the small boats stop is like saying you’ll keep throwing rocks at cars until you win the lottery. All you’ll do is hurt a lot of people with absolutely no guarantee of success.
— Matt Green (@mattgreencomedy) April 22, 2024
If nothing else, the desperation to push through the Rwanda Bill, literally at any cost, has made the Government look blinkered and out of touch with what matters to the electorate.
Rishi Sunak has an airfield on standby, flights booked, 500 'highly trained individuals', all raring to go to ship a few poor folk to Rwanda.
Big macho talk.
Shame he doesn't have the same determination to deliver the 40 new hospitals we were promised as long ago as 2019.— Dominic Minghella (@DMinghella) April 22, 2024
So there's a target to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. But not a target to end rough sleeping or child poverty.
— David__Osland (@David__Osland) April 22, 2024
To make themselves even less relatable, Conservatives had a drinks reception in the PM’s office.
Ahead of the Rwanda votes tonight that could go on until 1AM – Tory chief whip Simon Hart will host drinks for MPs in Rishi Sunak's parly office pic.twitter.com/Evkgj4RUoG
— Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) April 22, 2024
It went down as well as you’d expect.
1.
"You know what this vote to send vulnerable asylum seekers to Rwanda is missing?"
"Even a semblance of human empathy?"
"Not even close, it's nibbles" https://t.co/BLzmCf3PeK— James Felton (@JimMFelton) April 22, 2024
2.
No doubt we'll be picking up the drinks bill..
Rishi Sunak invites Tory MPs for drinks during the Rwanda vote…
This is beyond the Mad Hatter's Tea Party now.
Every penny going to this illegal and pointless Rwanda scheme is a penny not going to people who need the money https://t.co/njqBe0l9Dy— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) April 22, 2024
3.
Because it worked out so well last time. https://t.co/CMhn6YHtSc pic.twitter.com/mjGBS0xi5M
— Best for Britain (@BestForBritain) April 22, 2024
4.
English sparkling wine and canapés while parliament votes whether to send desperate refugees to Rwanda without even checking their claims first?
If you wrote that in fiction it’d get cut for being far too clunky. https://t.co/ideEegtHqU
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) April 22, 2024
5.
Putting the port into deportation. These people are telling us exactly who they are, so if you were wondering if crushing the most vulnerable to further a pitiful agenda was abhorrent, you'd be right. https://t.co/FzoA3yJ7d4
— HENRY MORRIS (@mrhenrymorris) April 22, 2024
6.
Enjoying a drinks party in the Commons tonight, where Tory MPs are having a good laugh about voting to send desperate people to Rwanda, even if they are Afghans who served with the military.
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) April 22, 2024
7.
Sipping champagne in a multimillionaire's parly office before sealing the fates of some of the most desperate human beings on Earth. https://t.co/AUMVgQKuRP
— Otto English (@Otto_English) April 22, 2024
8.
Well, isn't that nice
A drinks and deportations party https://t.co/Nt3IUUSvD7
— Joel Taylor (@JoelTaylorhack) April 22, 2024
9.
Grim and tonics all round pic.twitter.com/xhQwnv6b3f
— Toby Earle Threads tobyontv (@TobyonTV) April 22, 2024