RISHI Sunak was tonight rocked by TWO bombshell resignations over Rwanda - teeing up a blockbuster battle with rebels for the very survival of the plan.
Tory MPs Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith quit their jobs as deputy party chairs after rebelling against the government.
The Red Wall duo both voted for a series of rebel amendments designed to toughen up the PM's flagship Rwanda Bill.
A third Tory MP - Jane Stevenson - was sacked from her role as a ministerial aide to Kemi Badenoch for going against the PM.
Almost 70 MPs - including eight from the DUP - joined the rightwing revolt demanding fundamental changes to the PM’s flagship deportation scheme.
The ringleaders today warned the current Bill is “unworkable” because it is vulnerable to legal challenges from both individual migrants and European judges.
Some even threatened to side with Labour against the Rwanda Bill when it returns for the crunch vote in the Commons tomorrow.
Mr Sunak will lose the vote expected Wednesday night if more than 32 Tory MPs vote against, or 55 abstain.
Ahead of a series of votes on the amendments tonight, Chief Whip Simon Hart warned any MP on the government payroll who sided with the rebels would be sacked.
READ MORE ON POLITICS
Shortly after backing the first rebel amendment, Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-Smith released a joint letter announcing their resignations.
They said: "Our support for the party and this Government remains as strong as ever and that is why we are so passionate about making this legislation work.
"However, we fully appreciate that with such important roles there is also the issue of being bound by collective responsibility.
"It is with this in mind that we fully appreciate that whilst our main wish is to strengthen the legislation, this means that in order to vote for amendments we will therefore need to offer you our resignations from our roles."
A day of high Westminster drama kicked off this morning with a dramatic intervention from Boris Johnson backing the revolt.
Causing trouble for his successor, he said: "This bill must be as legally robust as possible - and the right course is to adopt the amendments."
EXPLAINED: Why is Rishi Sunak facing a Rwanda rebellion?
REBEL Tory MPs are launching a series of amendments to toughen up the Rwanda plan. Here's what it means
What is happening?
Right-wing Tory rebels are tabling a series of amendments to Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill, which they believe is too weak to stop the boats as it stands.
What are the amendments?
The amendments seek to close supposed “loopholes” in the Bill which the rebels believe would let illegal migrants fight their deportation to Rwanda in the courts and grind the whole scheme to a halt once again.
They want to seal off these challenges to all-but exceptional cases, such as pregnant women.
Ministers insist the current legislation will already prevent more than 90 per cent of all legal challenges.
The rebels also want to automatically throw out any injunctions to stop planes taking off from European judges. These Rule 39 orders issued by the Strasbourg Court stopped a previous flight in 2022.
To achieve these ends, the amendments disapply the Human Rights Act and European Convention on Human Rights from immigration decisions.
Will they pass?
While almost 60 Tory MPs are backing the amendments, they will not pass without government support.
It is unlikely Mr Sunak will back any of them as it risks angering centrist Conservative “wets” who could then withdraw their backing.
What would the rebels do then?
If none of their amendments pass, the rebels then face a choice: either get behind the PM’s original Bill, or vote with opposition parties to oppose it.
Mr Sunak will lose the crunch vote expected Wednesday night if more than 32 Tory MPs vote against, or 55 abstain.
While some - including Suella Braverman - have said categorically they would not vote for the current Bill - most have kept their cards close to their chest so far.
Downing Street figures are confident that, if push came to shove, most Tory MPs would hold their noses and vote for the Bill rather than side with Labour to blow the whole plan up.
What if the PM’s Bill did fail?
If the rebels take the nuclear option of sinking the entire Rwanda Bill, it would leave Mr Sunak’s flagship immigration plan in tatters.
He might then make tweaks and hold another vote, but it would mark a huge setback for the PM’s efforts.
While stopping short of backing any of the amendments, Mr Sunak appealed to the rightwingers by vowing to defy European judges and fast-tracking migrant legal challenges.
But it has failed to win round several rebels who threatened to vote to sink the entire Bill tomorrow night if it continues unchanged.
They include ex-cabinet ministers Simon Clarke, Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman.
Tabling his amendments today, rebel ringleader Mr Jenrick - who is bidding to close off individual asylum seeker appeals - told MPs: “Time and again we will lose these cases in the courts. So the Bill in that respect is legally flawed.”
READ MORE SUN STORIES
He added: “I want to stop the boats and secure our borders. This is a difficult issue, but we're not a parish council, struggling with some kind of intractable legal issue, we're a sovereign Parliament, the power is in our hands, we have agency.”
Meanwhile, former Home Secretary Priti Patel urged colleagues to back the Bill - albeit with assurances to stop civil servants blocking deportation flights.
