Rishi Sunak has not ruled out calling a snap election as he struggles to salvage his Rwanda migrant scheme.
The plan to deport migrants to the African nation - even if they are refugees - was blocked by the Supreme Court earlier this week. The PM has announced he will sign a new treaty with Rwanda and introduce emergency legislation in a bid to get the flights started.
Some Tory MPs have suggested Mr Sunak should call a general election if the proposed new laws get stuck in the House of Lords. Sir Simon Clarke, the Tory former minister, said: “We need the legislation that is brought forward to be truly effective, and if the Lords block it - let’s take it to the country.”
As he visited a school in Chesterfield, Derbyshire this lunchtime Mr Sunak declined to comment on whether he could hold a snap election. Instead, the Prime Minister said it was up to Labour to help push through the new law. Asked whether he could be tempted to call an election in the event the proposal is blocked, Mr Sunak said: "It doesn't have to take a long time to get legislation through - and that is a question for the Labour Party.
"We're determined to get this through as quickly as possible. So the real question is: is the Labour Party going to stand in the way and stop this from happening, or are they going to work with us and support this Bill so we can get it through as quickly as possible. I know that the British people want this problem gripped. I know the British people will want this new law to pass so we can get flights off to Rwanda.”
The PM said his planned emergency legislation deeming Rwanda a "safe" country, despite Supreme Court concerns about the country's handling of asylum claims, was "not about over-ruling laws".
He added: “This is about us meeting the concerns of the Supreme Court with our new treaty that we have been working on for a while in anticipation that this might happen. But our new laws will make it crystal clear that Parliament's view is that, because of those arrangements, Rwanda is a safe country for us to be able to run this programme and that there should be no more challenges domestically to that.
"I think that is what the British people want. Their patience has worn thin, as has mine. Everyone is frustrated with this problem. We've just got to now get past this gridlock, we've got to pass this new law, get flights off to Rwanda. That is what I'm going to do. When I said I was going to stop the boats, I meant it."
Downing Street did not rule out the prospect of MPs debating an emergency stop the boats law over Christmas. Asked about the prospect of Parliament sitting over the Christmas recess, the Prime Minister's spokeswoman said: "I think we are prepared to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we can get this in place and get flights off the ground. I wouldn't speculate on parliamentary process but I cannot impress (enough) the importance that the Prime Minister places on this necessary legislation to deliver for the public on the important priority of stopping the boats."
The Government has already handed Rwanda £140million despite failing to send a single asylum seeker there.
As the Tory civil war rumbles on, a senior Tory MP has likened proposals put forward by Suella Braverman to the actions of Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping. The ex-Home Secretary suggested introducing emergency powers to exclude "all avenues of legal challenge" in a bid to get flights off the ground.
Damian Green, the former de facto Deputy Prime Minister, said it was the "most unconservative statement I have ever heard from a Conservative politician". He posted on X: "Giving the state explicit power to override every legal constraint is what Putin and Xi do. We absolutely cannot go there". In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added: "Conservatives believe in a democratic country run by the rule of law and dictators - Xi and Putin - would prefer to have the state completely untrammelled by any law."