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Ministers ram through six controversial laws at last minute as Parliament prorogues before Queen’s Speech

The Government forced through legislation designed to tighten Britain's borders regime, crack down on aggressive protests, overhaul how elections are overseen and limit the scope of court challenges to public bodies

The local elections campaign will kick off in earnest on Thursday after the Government managed to force its remaining bills through Parliament – including the divisive Nationality and Borders Bill – despite last-minute battles between MPs and peers.

After a year-long session of Parliament disrupted by Covid-19, events in Ukraine and Afghanistan, and persistent questions over Boris Johnson’s leadership, half a dozen pieces of legislation had to be pushed through in barely 72 hours.

The House of Lords repeatedly objected to contentious provisions backed by ministers and the six outstanding bills passed repeatedly between the two chambers before peers appeared to admit defeat on Wednesday night.

Ministers managed to avoid making major concessions on legislation which is designed to tighten Britain’s borders regime, crack down on aggressive protests, overhaul how elections are overseen and limit the scope of court challenges to public bodies.

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Parliament will prorogue on schedule on Thursday, despite fears it could have had to sit next week – cutting into MPs’ campaigning for the local elections taking place next Thursday. Prorogation marks the official end to the parliamentary session, with the next session starting with the Queen’s Speech on 10 May, and if any bills had not passed on time they would have had to go through the whole Commons and Lords process again.

Home Secretary Priti Patel’s Nationality and Borders Bill, which will create a two-tier asylum system that penalises those who arrive by irregular means such as small boats, finished its passage through Parliament on Wednesday.

Peers mounted fierce resistance to this legislation throughout its passage through the House of Lords, including by trying to stop the differential treatment of asylum seekers based on how they arrive and stop those who arrive on small boats being criminalised, to introduce safeguards on offshoring them to places such as Rwanda and to bolster the Government’s commitment to safe and legal routes for refugees.

But the Lords’ battle ended on Tuesday night after Baroness Stroud withdrew her name from a key amendment on giving asylum seekers the right to vote, reportedly after a threat that she would be stripped of the Tory whip.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, a behemoth piece of legislation overhauling the criminal justice system, was finally approved by peers on Tuesday after a bruising passage through Parliament.

The bill’s powers for the police to crackdown on noisy protests in England and Wales were among the most controversial aspects but moves to strip the measures from the legislation were unsuccessful. Peers did manage to throw out completely attempts made by Ms Patel to combat tactics used by groups such as Insulate Britain, which disrupted traffic on the M25 last year, and Extinction Rebellion.

Labour sought to amend the Judicial Review and Courts Bill to give legal aid support for families at public inquests, but were defeated at the last minute. The Building Safety Bill and Health and Social Care Bill also passed without Lords amendments, despite attempts to cap the cost of social care, while ministers were confident of forcing through the Elections Bill, which will make it compulsory to show ID in order to vote.

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