Tetchy, moi? Rishi Sunak jokes about Godfather-style infighting at Christmas bash for Tory MPs as he plays down rumours about his temper - and reveals he is reading the new Jilly Cooper novel

Rishi Sunak joked about Godfather-style infighting as he hosted Tory MPs for a Christmas bash at No10 last night.

The PM made light of the intense wrangling over the Rwanda deportation plans, quipping that he was gifting Mark Francois, the head of the right-wing ERG bloc, a copy of the mafia classic.

Mr Francois has been nicknamed 'Fredo' by some Westminster wags, in a reference to the traitorous brother from the film. 

Mr Sunak also tried to rouse his troops at the gathering - said by those attending to have been surprisingly collegiate - by ribbing David Cameron. He suggested he would be buying the Foreign Secretary a book laying out the benefits of Brexit. 

The emergency legislation intended to get Rwanda deportation flights up and running cleared its first Parliamentary hurdle on Tuesday night after a day of arm-twisting and coaxing.

But Mr Sunak is still facing a struggle to get the proposals on the statute book, with the Right vowing to toughen them up and One Nation Tories suggesting they go too far in watering down human rights rules.

In an interview with the Spectator, the PM declined to re-commit to his timetable of getting flights in the air by Spring - with fierce opposition anticipated in the House of Lords.

'I'm keen to crack on with it,' he said.

As the Tories continue to lag far behind Labour in the polls, the premier also dismissed claims that he is getting increasingly short-tempered about the lack of progress on issues such as his pledge to 'Stop the Boats'.

However, he conceded that he does get 'frustrated' when things are not working 'the way I want them to work'. 

'There's nothing tetchy,' he said. 'But I am passionate. When things are not working the way I want them to work, of course I'm going to be frustrated.'

Mr Sunak gave fresh insight into how he spends his free time, disclosing that he has been sent a signed copy of Jilly Cooper's latest romantic novel, Tackle!, after she learned he was a fan. 

One senior right-wing Tory MP told MailOnline that their hardline colleagues would have to give Mr Sunak's plan a chance.

'The purists like Francois are going to have to decide where their priorities are,' the MP said.

'They say the Bill won't work, the PM says it will. Well, you won't be able to tell unless you try it out.'

The senior MP said they expected Keir Starmer to order his troops to abstain on the third reading of the legislation. That would diminish the influence of Conservative hardliners, effectively robbing them of the ability to block the Bill.   

'Labour won't want to be the people who stopped an immigration crackdown,' they said. 

'They've learned a bit from the Brexit situation. You can't be seen as blocking something voters want.'