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The Government’s Rwanda Bill will become law after the House of Lords abandoned a final amendment in a late night debate.
Peers ended their protracted stand-off over Rishi Sunak’s flagship deportation plan just after midnight, after months of wrangling over the controversial policy.
The House of Lords had been engaged in an extended tussle over the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, sending it back to the Commons five times in a bid to secure changes.
But the deadlock ended after MPs, backed by 312 to 237, rejected a requirement that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until the secretary of state, having consulted an independent monitoring body, made a statement to Parliament to that effect.
The debate returned to the Lords at 11.45pm, where Lord Anderson of Ipswich said there would have been no point continuing the fight.
“The time has come to accept the primacy of the elected house and withdraw from the fray,” he said.
The Government had said the Lords amendment was “almost identical” to the previous ones overturned by MPs.
Earlier in the upper House, the opposition did not press its demand for the Bill to include an exemption from removal for Afghan nationals who assisted British troops after what critics hailed as a concession.
A Home Office minister said the Government will not send those who are eligible under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) to Rwanda.
The new law aims to clear the way to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to Kigali.
Earlier, the Prime Minister claimed the first flight carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda will leave in 10-12 weeks, promising that the scheme would be put into operation, “no ifs, no buts”.
The legislation and a treaty with Rwanda are intended to prevent further legal challenges to the stalled scheme after the Supreme Court ruled the plan was unlawful.
As well as compelling judges to regard the east African country as safe, it would give ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.
The Prime Minister says the policy will act as a deterrent to migrants attempting to make the perilous journey across the world’s busiest shipping lane.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Sunak blamed Labour peers for holding up the Bill, as he acknowledged he will miss his self-imposed spring target for getting the Rwanda scheme off the ground.
More to follow
