Voices: It turns out that Sunak can do politics after all

Rishi Sunak and Simon Hart, his chief whip, can count after all. They secured the first vote on the Rwanda bill with an unexpectedly comfortable majority of 44.

After all the big talk from Mark Francois, boss leader of the “five families” of anti-immigration Conservative MPs; from Suella Braverman, who called her prime minister “weak”; and from Robert Jenrick, who said the legislation would be ineffective – not a single Tory MP voted against the government. The ship of state sailed past the “rebels” with barely a bump.

The government, whose