RISHI SUNAK fought to hold his government together today as hard-line Tory rebels threatened to sink his Rwanda deportation legislation.

Tory rebels mustered 68 votes for their amendments, which were opposed by most Conservatives and all other parties except the Democratic Unionists.

Many of the Tory dissidents will likely ultimately back the final Bill, but it will be a nerve-wracking couple of days for the government, which was rocked by the resignation of Tory deputy chairs Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith.

The populist Mr Anderson is a hero to much of the right-wing rank-and-file of the Tory Party, and his departure from the front bench will free him to use his platform on GB News to challenge the government on migration and other culture war issues.

Disgraced ex-premier Boris Johnson also piled the pressure on his successor-but-one — who he blames for his own loss of office — by urging back-bench Tories to toughen up the Bill.

“Governments around the world are now trying to imitate the UK Rwanda policy for tackling illegal people-trafficking,” Mr Johnson claimed with his characteristic mendacity as MPs began two days of debate on the plan.

“This Bill must be as legally robust as possible — and the right course is to adopt the amendments,” which have been tabled by right-wing MPs to block legal challenges to deportation, he added.

Mr Sunak was trying to appease his critics on the right today, by pledging to deploy more judges to expedite appeals against deportation from desperate refugees.

This did not look like being enough for the rebels, who are demanding deportation to Rwanda first, and appeal hearings from there thereafter.

John Hayes and Miriam Cates, leaders of migrant-hostile Tory factions, indicated that unless their amendments were passed, which would require government backing, they would vote against the Bill on its final reading.

And former cabinet minister Simon Clarke invoked the spirit of repeated Tory rebellions against Theresa May’s Brexit deal and threatened a repetition. We either amend this Bill so that it will work, or we face utter disaster when it becomes clear over the months ahead that it does not deliver,” he said.

Since Labour and other opposition parties will also vote against the law, a Tory revolt of any size could defeat the Bill and push the government to the point of implosion.

Tory MPs are already spooked by the rise of the anti-migrant Reform UK party, which polling shows could damage their chances of re-election in many constituencies.

Tory whips claimed to be confident that at the death the rebels would be too few in number to trigger Conservative apocalypse however.

The desperate Prime Minister also indicated that he might be prepared to ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) under certain circumstances. The populist right wants Britain to pull out of the ECHR altogether.

Yet going down that line would risk a rebellion by more moderate Tories, who insist on staying within international law on the treatment of refugees. Their hand was strengthened today by the UN refugee agency UNHCR branding the new Rwanda plan as “incompatible” with international obligations.

The government rejected that finding, but the Rwandan government may pull out of the whole benighted deal if it puts them on the wrong side of the law.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk claimed that “with the additional court room and judicial capacity the vast majority of Illegal Migration Act appeal work will be dealt with by the courts in an expedited manner.”

Given the huge strain on the court system after more than a decade of cuts this reveals the existential priority the Tories are placing on the issue.

Amnesty International UK is calling on MPs to vote against the Bill altogether. Chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said that the Bill proved “that the government has lost sight of its obligation to protect the rights of refugees, abide by judicial rulings and uphold the rule of law.”

That appeal was backed by the moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, Sally Foster-Fulton, who urged Scottish MPs to vote down the Bill.