Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under further pressure to save his controversial Rwanda plan after a senior civil servant revealed the government spent an additional £100 million in the last year, bringing the cost of the so-far unused scheme to £240 million.
The Home Office’s senior civil servant Matthew Rycroft said in his letter that ministers had agreed he could disclose the payments “so far” in the financial year from 2023–24, revealing there had been one payment of £100 million as part of the Economic Transformation and Integration fund. In the year to 2023, £140 million has already been spent, with a further £50 million expected in the coming year.
Labour branded the latest revelation on the escalating costs “incredible,” with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper asking on X, “How many more blank cheques will Rishi Sunak write before the Tories come clean about the scheme being a total farce?”
But speaking in the House of Lords today, Home Office minister Lord Andrew Sharpe defended the costs, saying the government is currently spending £8 million a day housing immigrants in hotels, which equates to around £3 billion a year.
Lord Sharpe said: “The cost of the UK’s asylum system has roughly doubled in the last year, and now stands at almost £4 billion. The payments made so far to Rwanda represent about 30 days of hotel costs.”
He added the scheme is designed to deter immigrants from making “illegal and dangerous crossings” in the first place as well as disrupting the criminal gangs who profit from the people trafficking trade.
Bill Attacked
The bill has been attacked for different reasons across the political spectrum, with immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigning earlier this week over the latest draft of the Rwanda bill tabled by the government, calling it “a triumph of hope over experience.”Mr. Jenrick stood down after it emerged the bill would not allow the government to override international law, which has so far prevented any immigrants being put on flights to the central African country.
The latest bill aims to push emergency legislation through Parliament, seeking approval for MPs and peers to declare Rwanda a safe destination for immigrants.
Some on the right of the Tory party—including Mr. Jenrick and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman—believe the latest bill does not go far enough as the UK’s membership of the European Court of Human Rights means continued legal challenges to the bill are likely.
European Research Group Chairman Mark Francois said, “We all agree with the prime minister that we need to stop the boats, but the legislation to do this must be assuredly fit for purpose.”
The much-maligned scheme was revealed in April 2022 and proposes that those who arrive in the UK illegally, such as on small boat crossings, could be put on a one-way flight to Kigali, where the Rwandan government would decide whether to grant them refugee status.
Mr. Sunak has dismissed suggestions he will force his MPs to vote with the government by using a three-line whip, but called for unity within his party as well as support from Labour MPs to get the bill through, claiming it will put an end to the “merry-go-round of legal challenges.”
MPs will have their first opportunity to debate the legislation, known as the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill on Tuesday next week.
