Shocking footage shows MORE migrants risking their lives on tiny dinghy in the Channel today – as the Tory party rips itself to shreds over whether Rishi Sunak’s latest Rwanda plan can stop them

Shocking footage showed more migrants risking their lives in the Channel today as as Tories descend into civil war over whether Rishi Sunak‘s Rwanda plan can stop them.

Dozens of people could be seen packed on to a tiny dinghy as it struggled off the coast of Kent, dwarfed by ferries and cargo vessels in the busy shipping lane.

After plucking them from the waves, Border Force officials were pictured bringing the group ashore brought at Dover.

The drama – which underlines the resumption of crossings after an apparent lull over Christmas – unfolded just hours before the latest bout of Tory drama is set to begin at Westminster.

The PM will try to force his Rwanda legislation through its final Commons stages this afternoon, despite threats from right-wingers to kill it off – even if that means the government collapsing.

Some 60 Conservatives joined a revolt aiming to toughen the Bill last night, with two party deputy chairs and a ministerial aide resigning in a shattering blow to Mr Sunak’s authority.

However, those amendments had no prospect of passing because they were not supported by Labour. The existential threat to the premier’s flagship policy is set to crystalise this evening at third reading – the last hurdle in the Commons.

In a sign that Mr Sunak is determined to face down the right-wing challenge, Downing Street has indicated it will not make the vote a formal confidence issue.

Mr Sunak shrugged off the wrangling as he took PMQs this afternoon, insisting: ‘We want to stop the boats. We have a plan and it is working.’ 

As Keir Starmer jibed likened Tory squabbling on Rwanda to ‘hundreds of bald men fighting over a comb’, Mr Sunak shot back that Labour had no interest in tackling the problem and would take the country ‘back to square one’. 

Although some rebels have openly vowed to oppose the legislation altogether, even ringleaders expect the bulk of the mutineers to stop short of crashing the legislation and provoking an all-out crisis.

It would take around 28 MPs voting against, twice that many abstentions, or a combination of the two, to overturn the government’s majority.

But the spat has poured petrol on raging splits in the party, with furious Tories branding the rebels ‘not very bright’. Former No10 communications director Guto Harri described the right-wingers as ‘narcissists’ who were pushing for ‘mass suicide’ with just months to go until a general election.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tried to make light of the vicious infighting this morning, describing it as a ‘lively debate’.

Underlining the wider problems, a poll overnight showed Labour 17 points ahead – with fears the Conservatives are ‘leaking votes’ to Reform UK. 

The insurrection last night was the biggest in Mr Sunak’s time as leader.

It was bolstered by an intervention from Boris Johnson, who urged the rebels to stand their ground to make the legislation ‘as legally robust as possible’.

The former PM said: ‘Governments around the world are now trying to imitate the UK Rwanda policy for tackling illegal people trafficking. This Bill must be as legally robust as possible – and the right course is to adopt the amendments.’

However, Downing Street said the proposed legislation was already the ‘toughest ever’ and warned that tightening it further risked breaking international law.

The PM’s official spokesman said the plans were ‘legally robust and the fastest way to get flights off the ground’.

But 60 MPs voted for an amendment to the Rwanda Bill that would have disapplied human rights laws in relation to deportations. 

A similar number backed a separate push to ban Channel migrants from lodging individual legal appeals to frustrate their removal.

Rebels included ten former Cabinet ministers, including Liz Truss, Suella Braverman, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who led yesterday’s revolt.

In a further blow, Tory deputy chairmen Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith resigned to join the revolt, as did Kemi Badenoch‘s aide Jane Stevenson.

The proposed changes were heavily defeated last night as they were opposed by both the Government and Labour.

But some rebels warned they could vote down the entire Rwanda Bill tonight unless the Government caves in.

Former Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke said: ‘I will vote against if the legislation isn’t amended. Simple as that.’

Mark Francois, chairman of the ERG group of Eurosceptic Tories, urged the PM to back down or risk losing his flagship policy tonight. ‘Given the size of the vote tonight, if I were his advisers, I would be saying: ‘I think you want to compromise tomorrow if you can’.’

Tory whips are trying to peel off some of the rebels and reduce their number to a ‘hardcore’ of around a dozen.

However, there are concerns the Government could still lose if a large number of Tory MPs abstain. 

Mr Harri described the rebels as ‘self-centred narcissists’ whose revolt was ‘utterly futile’. 

He told Sky News: ‘Tomorrow they are either going to bottle it or they really are going to commit mass political suicide.’ 

A right-leaning minister told the Financial Times: ‘They are just not strategically very bright. They have told the country that our policy is sh**, but when it comes to the third reading vote they will abstain and look stupid.’ 

Illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson sought to play down the depth of Tory divisions in a round of interviews this morning, saying: ‘We all want the same thing.’

‘There are disagreements of emphasis. There’s an inch between us, there’s a determination to ensure that the policy works,’ he told the BBC.

The rebellion came just 24 hours after Tory elections chief Isaac Levido issued a stark warning to Conservative MPs that they risk inevitable defeat if they allow infighting to continue.

‘Let me be clear: divided parties fail. It’s time to get serious,’ he told the backbench 1922 Committee on Monday night.

The Rwanda scheme was blocked by the Supreme Court in November after judges accepted claims that the country was not safe.

The new legislation declares in law that the African nation is a safe country and prevents the courts examining the principle of the scheme. 

But, to the dismay of Tory rebels, it will not stop individual appeals by migrants threatened with deportation.

Rebel MPs are also seeking to disapply all human rights laws and ban interventions from the European Court of Human Rights, which grounded the last attempted deportation flight to Rwanda in June 2022.

Mr Jenrick, who quit the government last month, said there would be a deluge of individual claims unless they were outlawed, telling MPs: ‘Every legal representative and Leftie lawyer will try everything they can to support those claims. We see it every time.’

He added: ‘How much are we actually willing to do to stop the boats? How willing are we to take on the vested interests, balance the trade-offs, take the robust steps that will actually work?

‘The only countries in the world that have fixed this problem, latterly Australia and Greece, have been willing to take the most robust action. Are we?’

MPs will vote on further amendments today before holding a crunch vote tonight on whether to approve the Bill and send it to the House of Lords.

Mr Anderson has told friends he is ready to vote down the Bill. Mr Sunak made extensive efforts to persuade the straight-talking former miner to vote with the Government. But Mr Anderson told GB News: ‘I don’t think I could carry on in my role when I fundamentally disagree with the Bill.’

In a joint letter with Mr Clarke-Smith, he said: ‘We have already had two pieces of legislation thwarted by a system that does not work in favour of the British people. It is for this reason that we have supported the amendments… This is not because we are against the legislation, but because like everybody else we want it to work.’

Business Secretary Ms Badenoch is known to have privately urged No 10 to strengthen the Bill. Last night, her parliamentary aide Ms Stevenson resigned. 

The MP for Wolverhampton North East said the legislation had to be ‘as robust as it possibly can be’ to deal with the illegal immigration ‘crisis’. 

‘It is a crisis and my constituents certainly want to see results,’ she said.

In the debate, immigration minister Michael Tomlinson urged MPs to unite behind the policy, saying: ‘Let there be no doubt that the Government is focused and determined to stop the boats. We have made progress, but we must be enabled to finish the job.’