North Herefordshire MP Sir Bill Wiggin was among 60 Conservative MPs backing an unsuccessful bid to beef up the government’s controversial Rwanda asylum bill last night.

In all 68 MPs, with a further eight from the Democratic Unionist Party, backed an amendment put forward by Conservative backbencher Sir Bill Cash aimed at preventing UK and international law being used to stop or delay asylum seekers being taken to Rwanda.

Deputy party chairmen Lee Anderson and Brendan Clarke-Smith, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick and former Prime Minster Liz Truss were among the Tory rebels.

Mr Anderson and Mr Clarke-Smith resigned their party positions as a consequence, in what The Independent called the biggest Conservative rebellion of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman, a previous critic of the government’s flagship immigration policy, did not vote.

A further key vote on the bill takes places this evening.