Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he cannot say for sure whether the Renters Reform Bill will be ‘waved through’ into law in the so-called wash-up period before Parliament is dissolved later today.

As of late last night it looked unlikely that the Bill would be considered today.

Speaking on LBC about Bills still going through Parliament – including Renters Reform, and the measure to compensate victims of the contaminated blood scandal – Sunak said: “It’s a question of conversations across all parties in Parliament. Those are Parliamentary procedures. When Parliament dissolves at the end of a session and you have a couple more days to get the last bits of legislation through, I can’t force those through on my own.

“It requires a conversation with parties across Parliament. That’s how our constitution works – that’s how our Parliament works. There’s no need to make any political point about it. That’s just the reality of the situation.”

The Bill is formally at the Committee stage in the House of Lords, at which it would in other circumstances be subject to detailed line-by-line scrutiny. That is definitely impossible to achieve by the time Parliament is formally dissolved on May 30.

However, until then the wash-up period usually involves a rush to pass legislation and get it onto the statute book, which often means parties having to work together to agree on which Bills they will support.

Some Labour insiders suggest the party is keen to include the Renters Reform Bill in the wash-up as the party already accepts many of the key elements in the Bill, and getting it on to the statute book now would save it time, should it win the election and form the next government.

However as of late last night – Thursday – the House of Lords business listed for today, Friday, did not include the Renters Reform Bill, suggesting it is not considered passable by Labour and the government.