Why Sunak Faces One of His Toughest Weeks as U.K. Leader

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain embarked on one of the most politically fraught weeks of his tenure on Monday, facing a mutiny against his flagship immigration policy while testifying before an official inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic about whether he had contributed to driving up infections.

On a day of split-screen drama in the capital, Mr. Sunak expressed sorrow for Britain’s heavy death toll from Covid-19, saying, “It’s important that we learn the lessons so we can be better prepared in the future.”

But he briskly rejected claims that one of his most conspicuous projects as chancellor of the Exchequer — subsidizing restaurant meals to shore up the economy — had accelerated a second wave of the virus in the fall of 2020. Other officials have testified that scientists were not consulted about the program, and viewed it as risky.

While Mr. Sunak was defending his role in the Covid response, right-wing Conservative Party lawmakers met a few miles across London to share doubts about his revised policy of putting asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda. The legislation has fractured the party, alienating both Tory centrists, who worry that it goes too far, and right-wingers, who contend it does not go far enough.

Legal experts for the European Research group, a caucus of right-wing lawmakers, concluded that the bill provides only “a partial and incomplete solution” to the legal problems that have thwarted previous versions of the policy and said that “very significant amendments” were needed. Some called on Mr. Sunak to pull it.

With a parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday, Mr. Sunak faces the possibility of a rebellion that would torpedo the Rwanda policy. If lawmakers pass the plan, it could still face a string of amendments, as well as a hostile reception in the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of Parliament.

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