BLITZ BUREAU
UK’s new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed the Rwanda deportation scheme is “dead and buried”, on his first full day in office.
A gimmick
The Labour leader said he would end the “gimmick” of deporting migrants arriving in the UK illegally to Rwanda, which was established by the previous Conservative government. Labour campaigned on a manifesto pledge to scrap the scheme, which has already cost around £310m, promising a more effective approach to tackling illegal immigration to replace it.
At his first press
conference since entering Number 10, Sir Keir told journalists: “The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started.” He argued the scheme has “never been a deterrent” as it would only deport “less than 1%” of small boat arrivals.
The financial implications of scrapping the scheme and the total bill to the taxpayer are not yet known. Ending the scheme also leaves a question mark over the fate of 52,000 migrants earmarked for deportation. The scheme was a key battleground during the final days of Rishi Sunak’s government. The former prime minister made delivering the policy a key priority of his premiership, arguing it deterred people from crossing the English Channel in small boats.
Despite being announced two years ago by then-prime minister Boris Johnson, the Rwanda plan faced numerous legal challenges and never saw a flight take off. The plans also faced a painful passage through Parliament, sparking numerous Tory rebellions.
Boat crossings
As of 26 June, 13,195 people had come to the UK via small boat crossing in the Channel in 2024 – above the numbers for the same period in the previous four years. Since 2018, nearly 120,000 people have come to the UK by this route.
