A BOURNEMOUTH MP has hit out at the Rwanda bill after he recorded no vote at the House of Commons.

Tobias Ellwood did not vote with the government at the vote in Parliament on Tuesday, December 12.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saw off a Tory rebellion as the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill passed with a majority of 44.

However, Mr Ellwood criticised the bill.

“Purely on the legal side, the bill itself determines or states that Rwanda is safe, it states a country is safe. It’s not for the legislative to vote on this, it’s not something we’ve done in the past,” he said.

“We can’t determine if a country is safe or not. That’s embedded in the bill.

“It also could see us clash with the European Court of Human Rights on interim judgements on deportations.

“Again, we are drafters, upholders, we are supporters of international law. Other countries look to us as an exemplar on the international stage. Anything that challenges that position would erode our international status.”

The Bournemouth East MP said that the issue of flights to Rwanda has become ‘almost totemic, to be achieved at any cost’.

“We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it’s one aspect of a wider strategy to tackle migration,” Mr Ellwood said.

“We all want to see the small boats reduced or stopped. You look at the wider migration policy, it is reaping dividends. Returns to Albania, greater collaboration with France, tackling the gangs, and the new legal migration laws will see a reduction in over 300,000 in net migration.

“So unfortunately, the pursuit of Rwanda almost at any cost, is overshadowing not only other aspects of migration policy but also the other policy areas that we’ve worked hard on: to bring taxes down, to tackle inflation, to ease the cost of living crisis.”

He added: “I’m sorry that it's seen, once again, our party internally at loggerheads.”

Mr Ellwood was one of two Dorset MPs to not record a vote on the bill, along with Richard Drax.

The bill will face further votes in the new year.