conservative mps to back him. if he d lost tonight it would have significantly dented his authority. in total, 313 mps voted in favour of the bill and 269 mps voted against it, meaning the government had a majority of 44 votes. no conservatives mps voted against the bill, but 37 did not vote. chris mason is in westminster. a day ofjeopardy and a day of jitters and the government deploying every tool of persuasion and mathematics, so the phone calls and the snatched conversations in the corridors, the more formal meetings, and on the mathematical side making sure everyone who could vote for the government was here in order to vote for the government. to give you an example, the climate minister who was at the climate talks in the middle east, flew all the way back so that he could vote. that is how nervous the government was, despite the result when we finally got it. quite an evening then after quite a day. quite an evening then after quite a da . . , . , ., day. excuse me,
for more on this here s our political correspondent alex forsyth a warning her report contains flash photography. it was still dark when conservative mps arrived at downing street earlier this morning. over breakfast, the prime minister was trying to persuade them to back his latest attempt to send asylum seekers to rwanda. are you going to vote against the bill? are you satisfied? they were tight lipped on the way out about whether they d been convinced. some have been clear about their doubts. we are all of one mind on this. we all want the government to succeed in stopping the boats. we all want this legislation to be the right tool to deliver that. and i am genuinely grateful to the government for what they have done to make sure that this is the toughest ever piece of legislation. it is still partial and incomplete. successive home secretaries have been to rwanda, but so far no asylum seekers. some conservative mps say the government s latest attempt still falls short,