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context." >> the numbers of people coming to this country are down by over one third, mr. speaker. >> is the u.k. deal working? >> the supreme court said your country is not safe. is it safe to refugees? >> as things stand, the government maintains a confidence that despite this noise, when the vote comes, we can wait. ♪ samantha: u.k. prime minister rishi sunak faces a crucial vote on his plan to deport asylum-seekers to rwanda. after two deputy chairman from his own party resigned over the issue. this is the scene now in the

comments, as mps are due to vote on the prime minister's landmark bill. we will bring you all of the details as soon as we get them. also tonight, pakistan recalls its ambassador to iran in response to a missile and drone attack on its territory. king charles and catherine, the princess of wales, temporarily stepped back from royal duties for health reasons. as china's population falls for the second year in a row, we will look at what this means for china. the british prime minister is facing yet another test of his authority tonight over plans to send migrants to rwanda. rishi sunak is trying to revive government proposals to send some asylum-seekers to the east african country, arguing it will deter people from crossing the english channel in small boats from france. that he suffered the biggest rebellion of his premiership in parliament last night.

and two deputy tears of the conservati party resigned, saying to build was not tough enough. mp's are due to vote on the prime minter's landmark bill. here is our political editor, chris mason. reporter: the government has promised to stop the votes. the numbers are down. migrants keep coming. this is dover this morning. the rwanda ion is about putting people off attempting this crossing, but no one who has made this journey has been sent there yet. what does the root -- what does the rwandan president make a fiddle? -- make of it all? >> not seeing a refugee. reporter: if people don't come, we will return the money, he says. the u.k. has already handed over 240 million pounds. >> your party backs the bill? reporter: the prime minister is trying to get his rwandan policy to work. for two years, it has been stymied by the courts.

the labor leader who scrapped the plan sought to mark rishi sunak over silencing his -- >> only this government could waste hundreds of millions of pounds on a policy that does not remove anyone. but he still has not answered the question. so i will try again. what progress has he made in locating the 4250 people his government has apparently lost? reporter: the prime minister dodged the question, but hit back. >> have worked through a record number of cases and returned a record number of people back to where they have come. all about is a plan that is working and we can see is working because the numbers of people coming to this country are down by over a third. reporter: 18 months ago, this plane was due to take some migrants to rwanda, but at the last minute, using what are dubbed pajama injunctions, the european courts of human rights said no. the plane never left. some conservatives want the

default legal position to be that these rulings are ignored. >> the court overrode english judges, overrode the will of the government, overrode the will of the british people to control our borders and stop the vote. that is a problem with the foreign court. reporter: look at this, the former home secretary and former immigration minister now leading the criticism of the government. > it is on us. we have the power to fix this. . and we have the responsibility. let's use the opportunity we have today with the amendment we brought forward to resolve this. reporter: some are not convinced and argue it is wrong to deny people rights that others do have. >> history assures us that that legislation can put a state on a pretty slippery slope. >> while parliament can legislate to do whatever it liked in domestic law, the subfactors you cannot legislate away the international law. reporter: the debate continues

here. the votes will then follow well into the evening. samantha: live to our deputy political editor who is in westminster in the house of parliament. welcome to you. the votes have begun. take us through what is happening. >> we we are on number six in terms of the votes. it is worth saying that normally we would not see any of this. it would be happening in a committee room because it is the committee stage of the bill, where they go mind by line and have a series of votes. but because it is a significant one with people wanting to speak, they do it in the house of commons. a lot of these amendments are pretty technical. there are a lot of them. one of the more interesting ones put forward by robert generate, the minister who resigned over all of this, he put forward an amendment which would -- which would effectively mean the u.k. could ignore those pajama rulings which chris talked about. his plan was defeated, but there were 65 who voted for i

we have not the breakdown. but there will be a mixture of conservative apples and conservative mp's. a pretty hefty rebellion there, but not enough for those rebels to get their way, because the opposition parties are all voting in the opposite direction. the crucial one for rishi sunak will be third reading, the final puzzle for this bill here in the house of commons before it goes to the house of lowa -- house of lords. there will be another hour of debate, and then the vote will happen. all of the signals today from those rebels from yesterday is that most of them now will get behind this bill at this final stage. i think they think it is better to have this bill, even though they think it is flawed, even though many have said that it will not work. they think this is better than having no bill at all. samantha: and just how big a test is this being seen of his leadership now, in a near where it is likely we will see a general election? reporter: i think that does come into it. i think there are some tory mps

who do not want to undermine the authority of the prime minister. but more than 60 of em yesterday decided they would go against what he wanted. that was a huge rebellion. and of course, that is damaging to his authority. truth is most of these tory mps are in favor of this bill, but they do disagree about the details. they disagree about whether they think it will work or not. for some of them, they are very frustrated because they think the courts have blocked this bill. they have previous attempts to deport people to rwanda. they think the same thing will happen again. we are in a situation where the bill will go to the house of lords. there will be plenty of peers who want to change it, who want to amend it. they wanto address -- they want to try and water it down. we could end up in a situation between going from one house to the other. not until it has gone through the lords where it gets to the end where there is the possibility of planes taking off to rwanda. even the, there are expected

that it will get challenged. >> how much political capital have the opposition labor managed to take? reporter: for them, as we saw then, it gave the labor leader a chance to get up and ridicule the prime minister. 2.2 the infighting in the conservative party. at the moment, the leaders of the opposition is asking the questions. that is ethically his right. as we get closer to the election, more skinny will fall on the labour party. to find out what their plans are, they talk about smashing the people smuggler, again, they took out working with the french. the ministers would say they already doing that. there will be more scrutiny. . if the bill gets through, the question for labor will be, will you go back on it? will you take it out of law? they said they will do that. i think the key thing so many tory and -- tory mps as if the bill gets through, will it work?

samantha: yes indeed. a question we can put to our next guest. thank you. let's go live to the ceo of the migrants rights network. let's pick up on that point. looking at the numbers, as of december last year, 29,000 people crossed the channel in small boats. last year alone. five migrants were trying to get to the u.k.. the government says this bill will work. it was half those people making that very dangerous crossing, risking their lives, and in too many cases, losing their lives. do you agree? >> we understand the government is using the rwanda bill and stop the votes campaign as a deterrence, but it is not working. you can see people feel there is no option but to get into those boats and come to the u.k., because there are no roots that allow them to come to seek refuge. like ukrainians have, the u.k.

like for the afghans, there have been some vulnerable schemes, they have been minuscule in terms of numbers. decision-making times. people get desperate. and they are sadly having to risk your lives and those boats -- risk their lives in those boats. samantha: what is the answer? > offer more safe routes for all nationalities. we have had a ukrainian scheme, where we had some flaws, but it has worked really well. we have welcomed people while they are fleeing the conflict. what we don't understand is why the government is not offering that two other nationalities. we can see it clearly what humanitarian issues there are right now. sudan, gaza, why aren't schemes available for them to escape those situations? what we would like is the government to uphold its refugee

obligations, and recognize that it needs to offer protection, not outsource this to other countries to do that -- to offer that protection. and just recognize that it has human rights obligations to abide by. and not try to circumvent them by creating new laws in parliament. samantha: 90 would say that creating ash many would say that creating that would open the flood great -- the flood gates, and not necessarily fleeing a warlike people are in ukraine. would you suggest separating out those who are fleeing war, to those who are seeking a better life elsewhere? >> i think what you need to do is to assess each case on its merits. and make sure -- samantha: we have the resources for the? we have seen our immigration system completely overwhelmed

with huge backlogs. is that feasible? >> we have had larger numbers come to the u.k. before. we have managed with those numbers before as well. the numbers were higher. the resources that we are using towards things like the rwanda plan, offering money to other countries, could be better used for our systems to create safer routes. i think there is an idea that everyone is going to come to the u.k., and that is not the case. many people who are displaced either get displaced internally, or go to neighboring countries. there are some who want to choose the u.k., because a -- because of family connections, because of legacy, it is about seeing the u.k. as this beacon, or a country that respects human rights. that is why they feel they will be welcomed, and they choose the u.k. sadly what we are finding is that is not the case with the

way the government has pushed through, not just the rwanda plan, but the illegal migration act. what we would like is the government and politicians to return to this human rights obligation we have, and a refugee obligation we have. and just to offer a similar scheme as they have done to the ukrainians. samantha: labor says they wod get tough on the people smugglers themselves, treat them like terrorists. do you think that is a better solution? >> we don't think that is going to work. the problem is if you go after -- there is always going to be an alternati. people are so desperate. what you need to do is offer those safe routes to people. then they will not need to resort to smugglers, and having to pay amounts to get tohe u.k. or risk their lives in whatever ways they have to to get to the u.k. i think it really is about not thinking about -- it is about

offering something very similar to the ukrainian scheme to others. i think that will resolve many of the issues that we have. samantha: these are qureshi from the migrants rights network, thank you for being with us. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's look at other stories making news in the u.k. politicians in northern ireland have failed to elect a speaker. it is the seventh recall of the assembly since may 2022. the assembly collapsed almost two years ago due to the democratic unionist's parties opposition to pose brexit trade rules for northern ireland. a little deadline to restore it runs out thursday. the final report of the public inquiry into the blood of scandal will be published in late may. the chair of the inquiry said more time was needed to prepare a report of this gravity.

victims and their families were told they would learn the findings in autumn last year. the rate of inflation and -- unexpectedly rose to 4% in december, the first increase in 10 months. up from 3.9% in november. the office of the national statistics says tobacco and alcohol had the biggest impact on prices. the chancellor insists the government's plan to bring down inflation is working. you are live with bbc news. two qatari medicine planes carrying edison has arrived in egypt. the consignment will be transferred under an agreement between israel and hamas, which will see increased aid for palestinian civilians in gaza. these are pictures from the crossing, where the aid convoy will enter the gaza strip. it is unclear how the medicines will be delivered to 45 of the

remaining more than 100 israeli hostages who are reported to be suffering from chronic diseases or in need of other life-saving drugs. to comes as residents of southern gaza say they have one of the most intense nights of airstrikes since the start of israel's offensive. our correspondent has more. reporter: residence in southern gaza tell us they have been experiencing some of the most intense israeli airstrikes since the start of the war. videos posted on social media, you can see the orange flames leap up from these israeli bombs that hit. you can hear gunfire reverberating around the city as hamas fighters fight with israeli soldiers atlose quarters. that has led to displaced people, and there have been thousands of them, sheltering at the hospital, one of the main hospitals in the city. now heading out of the city, on foot. one day and told us it had been a night of terror. people were panicking.

they had been screaming and crying nonstop. a local journalist told us people were heading westwards, not knowing what fate awaited them. at the same time, there is a lot going on diplomatically, with qatar having mediated this deal that will see medicines going in for israeli hostages being held by hamas in gaza in exchange for an increase in medicine being taken in for palestinian civilians. that is being seen as a positive sign. at the same time, we have hathaway has saying qatar is mediating here what it is calling series, intensive -- serious intensive discussions for a hostage release deal. it says it looks hopeful. samantha: theorld economic forum in davos, switzerland, the u.s.' top diplomat antony blinken was asked whether israeli lives matter more than palestinian lives. >> no. period. for me, i think so for -- i

think for so many of us, what we are seeing every single day in gaza -- among innocent men, women, and children, it breaks my heart. the question is. samantha: pakistan has recalled its ambassador to iran in response to a missile and drone attack on its territory. tyrone's env has been blocked from returning to islamabad. the strike targeted a militant group in the sparsely populated province. the pakistani foreign ministry said two children were killed in the attack. a spokesperson called it a blatant breach of pakistan's sovereignty and include -- and accused iran of violating international law. >> pakistan is our neighborly country. our friend and our brother, it

was not for target of drones and missiles the so-called iranian terrorist group has taken refuge in pakistani territory. we have discussed this topic many times with high-ranking military, security, and political officials to pakistan. samantha: our correspondent caroline davis is following developments from islamabad. reporter skirmishes between pakistan and iran on their border are not unheard of. put there rarely as high-profile as -- but they are rarely as high-profile as this incident. israeli state media said the israeli military had hit and targeted the headquarters of a sunni militant group, which has carried out multiple attacks inside iran. including claiming responsibility for an attack on a police station in december. the group itself has put out on social media, it says this particular strike hit the homes of the militants, and it killed family members of the militants,

rather than the bases themselves. they have vowed revenge on iran. iran has not put out an official statement on this incident. pakistan's foreign ministry has said two children were killed, and they have called this an unprovoked violation of pakistan's airspace. pakistan has recalled its ambassador to iran. and it has told that iran's ambassador to pakistan, currently at of the country, not to return. the backdrop to all of this, and the reason why this is getting more attention, is because of the timing. the fact that iran has in recent days hit both iraq and syria. it's a justs that iran is trying to show a display of strength and force against any group that it considers to be a threat. samantha: let's go live to a research fellow for south and central asian defense, strategy and diplomacy at the international institute for strategic studies. good to happy with us.

what is your assessment of what iran is trying to achieve with this strike in pakistan? >> thank you for the opportunity. i think i ran -- i think iran is escalating its behavior and its armed use of force against a number of countries. what is surprising is the extent to which it took the decision to target a particular group inside pakistan. considering that relations between iran and pakistan have been cordial, if not entirely trouble-fr. over the last few years. militants see on the bilateral cross-border basis, possibly in connection to afghanistan, has been a long-standing issue between iraand pakistan.

but never before has there been such a dramatic escalation of iranian use of force, across the border in pakistan. samantha: i was good to say, islamabad has said the attack is a legal. they are warning of consequences potentially. what could this consequences look like realistically? >> so far, the pakistani response has been diplomatic, as your correspondent just noted. the iranian ambassador to islamabad was sent back to tehran. the pakistani and envoy to tehran has been recalled. there has been a strong pakistani statement, and foreign minister jill lonnie has been on the phone at the request of the iranian foreign minister to really try and diffuse the situation. iran has also, from davos, the

foreign minister of iran has confirmed that from iran's point of view, but target was a narrow set of militant and not pakistan sovereignty. i think the mood currently is a form of de-escalation. i don't discard the possibility that pakistan may seek to add troops for border security in the next few days, on its 400 kilometer border with iran. as of now, i see no indication that pakistan might seek to retaliate in any way proportionate to iran's disproportionate attack. samantha: we also heard from the iranian foreign minister at dabo saying he assured his pakistani counterpart that we do respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of pakistan but there

have been strikes in the past few days by iran and iraq and syria. they have said they are not interested in a water conflict. what do you think the wider strategy actually is, given they all obviously have this access that we are talking about here, this axis of so-called resistance where they are backing the houthis, hezbollah, and gaza. what do you think they want to achieve? >> the organization has written extensively and researched the question of iran's influence networks in the wider militant -- wider middle eastern region. this extends to the countries we discussed a minute ago. all the way to afghanistan. and of course, it poses a question of sovereignty to a number of these countries, including pakistan. the patent of escalation we are seeing demonstrates a tempting

picture whereby we would equate pakistan -- sorry, iran's escalation to be a blanket move across the region. or else on the conflict of the gaza war, or else some finely calculated as chelate -- escalation country. i think it is important to resist that particular blanket assessment. in the end, iran is surrounded by neighbors. and each neighbor has its own history with iran. samantha: we must leave it there. thank you. mps have started voting on the government's rwanda narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors.

narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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