Lord Ricketts Vows ‘To Stay As Long As It Takes’ To Fight Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill
Lord Ricketts appears on LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr ahead of the Rwanda debate. (Photo via LBC/Tonight with Andrew Marr)
Former diplomat and crossbench peer Lord Peter Ricketts vowed to “stay as long as it takes” to fight Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda Bill in the House of Lords on Monday night.
The legislation being debated must secure approval from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, with debate potentially stretching into the early hours of Tuesday as the houses grapple over amendments.
Appearing on LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, Lord Ricketts expressed his deep reservations about the legislation, labelling his opposition as a “point of principle” but conceded that he was worried Labour peers “will fold” collapsing the upper house resistance against the bill.
He told host Andrew Marr: “We think this is a point of principle, and I’m certainly willing to stay as long as it takes until the very last train or the one after. I think that probably there’ll be one round, where the Lords will vote on these two amendments and send it back to the Commons. The Commons will then kick them out by then it will be quite late in the evening. And I suspect at that point that the Labour Party will fold, and some others will begin to go home. So probably, that’s the point at which people will say: ‘We retain our point of principle, but we’re not going to fight any further.’”
During the interview, Lord Ricketts passionately advocated for the adoption of Lord Des Browne’s amendment suggestion which would shield Afghan interpreters, who worked with British forces during the decades long Afrghanistan war, from relocation under the bill.
Lord Ricketts said: “I used to go to Afghanistan when I was National Security Adviser, I saw these guys, interpreters, people helping the British forces in many ways. They were taking a risk because the whole community knew that they were supporting the British. And when the British forces left, they stayed at home. And so, they are at risk, and we have a moral obligation to make sure they come to no harm.”
He continued: “I think people will want to hear it at the despatch box in the House of Lords and them accepting Des Browne’s amendment, which is a perfectly straightforward amendment.”
The peer added: “It’s a matter of national honour, it’s also a practical point because we want local people to serve with our forces again in future military occasions conflicts, we need them to be sure that if things come to it, we will see them all right, we won’t leave them to face the consequences having worked with us.”
