Rishi Sunak’s pyrrhic victory on Rwanda

THE DICTIONARYMPMPMPMP definition of “pyrrhic” just gained a new example. On January 17th Rishi Sunak secured a comfortable victory when s voted in favour of the third reading of the Safety of Rwanda Bill, a piece of legislation designed to unblock a totemic government scheme to deport asylum seekers to Kigali. For weeks Mr Sunak’s internal critics had rattled their sabres and issued chilling war cries. In the end Conservative rebels were scattered: the bill cleared the House of Commons with only 11 Tory s voting against it. The prime minister can claim victory. But it has been a costly week for his authority.The lives on but its credibility has been shredded by the s it was intended to please. The idea is for the Rwandan regime to take responsibility for people claiming asylum in Britain, at a cost so far of £240m ($304m). The prospect of deportation is an essential deterrent, Mr Sunak says, to illegal attempts to cross the English Channel in small boats. Some Tory s also claim it is the one route to avoiding electoral defeat. The bill is meant to circumvent by declaring Rwanda a “safe country” in law and by disapplying elements of human-rights legislation.