Rishi Sunak: Airfield on standby and planes booked for Rwanda deportations
After a series of delays, the prime minister vows the flagship plan to tackle the small boat crisis will finally happen "come what may".
Monday 22 April 2024 19:12, UK
The prime minister has said the first deportation flights to Rwanda will leave "in 10 to 12 weeks", as MPs and peers prepared for a long night voting on his emergency legislation.
Rishi Sunak said teams across the government were "working flat out to deliver this genuine game changer" - with an airfield on standby and booked commercial charter planes to get the first flights off to the African nation.
"No ifs, no buts, these flights are going to Rwanda," the prime minister vowed.
Politics latest: Rwanda deportations will start 'come what may'
Mr Sunak was speaking at a press conference in Downing Street before MPs and peers began voting on his emergency legislation - a process which could run into the early hours of the morning.
The controversial bill returned to the Commons shortly after 4pm, following several rounds of parliamentary ping-pong between the two Houses that saw peers express their opposition to the proposals through a series of amendments.
But MPs rejected their changes again this afternoon, which had called for a report on the safety of Rwanda and for those who had worked with UK forces never to be deported there.
Now the bill will return to the Lords, where those against the plan may try and push their amendments once more.
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Tap hereMr Sunak vowed last week that today would be the day the bill finally got through parliament, telling reporters there would be "no more prevarication, no more delay".
He repeated that assertion today, telling journalists: "Enough is enough", adding: "Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes."
The prime minister described his plan - which will see asylum seekers who arrive in the UK via irregular means sent to Rwanda instead - as an "indispensable deterrent " that removes the incentive for people to make the dangerous Channel crossing.
He declined to give operational details due to the "loud minority of people who will do absolutely anything and everything to disrupt this policy from succeeding" - but promised there would be a "regular rhythm" of "multiple flights a month through the summer and beyond".
And there would need to be a lot of take-offs, with the latest statistics showing there are 51,926 asylum seekers who have arrived in the UK through "irregular" means since the Illegal Migration Act came into force in July - meaning their cases under the law are inadmissible and they would have to be removed from the country.
What is Rishi Sunak's Rwanda bill and why is it taking so long to pass through parliament?
First concocted under Boris Johnson's leadership, the Rwanda scheme aims to tackle the migration crisis by sending asylum seekers who arrive in the UK by small boat to the African nation.
The controversial scheme, which has been denounced as cruel and unworkable by critics, has faced multiple setbacks, most notably in the Supreme Court, which ruled it "unlawful" last year.
To circumvent the Supreme Court ruling, Mr Sunak proposed a new Safety of Rwanda Bill to declare in UK law that the country is in fact a safe one to deport asylum seekers to.
Alongside the bill, the government also signed a treaty with Rwanda it says guarantees that no asylum seeker sent there will be sent back to their country of origin where they face a risk of persecution - a key concern of the court.
The bill in its current form gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act, but does not go as far as allowing them to dismiss the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) entirely - a demand of some on the right.
Some peers have expressed their displeasure with the bill by adding a series of amendments that have delayed its passage through parliament through a process known as parliamentary ping pong.
Among the changes they want to see is that Rwanda cannot be declared safe until a report is completed, that appeals based on safety would be allowed and that exemptions would be allowed for people who served with or for the British armed forces.
Mr Sunak has so far hinted that he is not willing to accept amendments proposed by the Lords - hence the tense standoff that has occurred over the past few months.
This evening the bill will return to the Commons to be voting on by MPs, before being sent back to the Lords for further consideration. It is at this stage that we will see whether the Lords will continue to dig in their heels, or, as is convention, back down and let the bill pass.
After promising that the first flight would take off in 10 to 12 weeks, which he said was later than he would have liked, he took aim at the Labour Party, whom he accused of blocking the bill in the Lords with their series of amendments.
Asked by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby whether the bill's likely passage would be a "moment of success" for him, Mr Sunak replied: "Success is when the boats have been stopped. That's what the country expects, that's what the government and I are committed to delivering."
While he refused to go into "sensitive" operations details, the prime minister did outline a number of measures the government was taking to prepare for the first flights to take off.
He said there were now 2,200 detention spaces and that 200 dedicated caseworkers had been trained to process claims quickly.
Around 25 courtrooms have been made available and 150 judges will provide 5,000 sitting days, he added.
Mr Sunak also said there were 500 "highly trained individuals ready to escort illegal migrants all the way to Rwanda, with 300 more trained in the coming week".
Sunak is desperate to be heard - but is the public listening anymore?
Desperate to convince voters he and his party can still be trusted to "stop the boats", the prime minister stood at the podium in Downing Street with that very slogan slapped on the front of it.
But is that slogan a reminder of a promise, or a reminder of a failure?
Calling a press conference to tell us all what you are going to do to get this policy off the ground may seem rather unnecessary, but it is a warning shot to the Lords who have continued to stop the bill becoming law due to their concerns around its legality and protection of vulnerable people.
Mr Sunak insists flights will take off in 10-12 weeks from now, and that lawyers, judges and even courtrooms have been prepared to deal with legal challenges and obstacles to getting flights off to Rwanda.
However, even if flights do take off, is the public even listening anymore?
Public apathy and loss of trust could be Mr Sunak’s biggest hurdle to climb even if this embattled prime minister can prove he can make Suella Braverman’s dream a reality.
"This is one of the most complex operational endeavours the Home Office has carried out," Mr Sunak said. "But we are ready, plans are in place and these flights will go, come what may."
And in a dig at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which blocked the first flight to Rwanda from taking off in the summer of 2022 with one of its rulings, the prime minister said: "No foreign court will stop us from getting flights off."
Hinting that he could be prepared to leave the ECHR - a key demand of some on the right, including former home secretary Suella Braverman - Mr Sunak said he would prioritise "national security" over "membership of a foreign court".
Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper branded the Rwanda scheme "extortionate" and denied Labour had blocked the bill in the Lords.
"The government has an overall majority in parliament and could have passed this bill a month ago if they had scheduled it then, but as we know Rishi Sunak always looks for someone else to blame," she told broadcasters.
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"This is costing the taxpayer half-a-billion pounds for a scheme that will only cover 1% of asylum seekers.
"This is an extortionate scheme. They should be putting that money into boosting our border security instead. That is what Labour would do."
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said following the press conference: "No amount of sound bites or spin can change the fact that the Conservative's Rwanda scheme is a colossal failure.
"Millions of pounds and years of government attention have already been wasted, with absolutely nothing to show for it.
"It's time for Rishi Sunak to get a grip, get to the palace and give this country the election it is crying out for."