Will the next prime minister seize the opportunity for a fresh approach to the English Channel crisis?

Days of damning reports have ripped into the Rwanda scheme and the overall Home Office strategy for immigration, Lizzie Dearden writes

Britain has already paid Rwanda £120m to take migrants despite the deal being grounded by legal challenges (Andrew Matthews/PA) (PA Wire)

The new prime minister will have their fair share of challenges, but one of the hardest to solve will be English Channel crossings.

Polling indicates that the issue is a high priority for Conservative Party members currently deciding between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, but neither candidate has had any involvement in asylum or immigration as part of their previous ministerial roles.

They may be thankful, given the results of policy approaches under Boris Johnson’s government.

Small boat crossings continue to reach new record highs as decision-making on asylum claims slows down, and the cost of housing those waiting for a verdict skyrockets.

Instead of attempting to remove the demand for smuggling over the Channel by providing safe and legal alternatives, the government has pursued ever more extreme “deterrents” that are yet to show any effect.

Priti Patel’s attempt to authorise push-backs to force migrant boats back French waters ended with a humiliating Home Office climb-down ahead of a full legal challenge, and the Ministry of Defence did not pursue the policy after taking responsibility for maritime operations.

The government then put its hopes in an expensive deal with Rwanda that it hopes will allow it to simply send asylum seekers who pass through European countries on their way to the UK away.

On Friday, Rwandan officials told a press conference that they cannot stop transferred migrants from simply leaving the country and attempting irregular journeys back to the UK.

The admission came at the end of an incredible run of damning reports for the Home Office and its asylum policies.

On Monday, parliament’s Home Affairs Committee found that the government broke Britain’s asylum system itself with post-Brexit failures and creaking Home Office systems, and must fix internal problems rather than trying to find “magical solutions” like Rwanda.

On Tuesday, a legal challenge revealed that the Foreign Office and UK High Commission to Rwanda had repeatedly told the government not to strike a deal with Rwanda, over human rights violations, fraud risks and practical considerations.

Then on Wednesday, a review of the Border Force was published, finding that the overall approach to Channel crossings had been “ineffective and possibly counter-productive in preventing” them.

On Thursday, a different report by the borders watchdog laid bare chaos at reception centres and said the government’s response had been “both ineffective and inefficient”, creating gaps in security procedures and leaving vulnerable migrants at risk.

Ministers have repeatedly claimed the Rwanda scheme will act as a “deterrent” but there was not enough evidence of that for the Home Office permanent secretary to sign off the huge costs, meaning Ms Patel had to force it through with a ministerial direction.

The scheme has now been delayed until October at the earliest by a legal challenge in the High Court, which the government could lose.

A new prime minister will be in place by then and although all Conservative leadership candidates have publicly backed the Rwanda deal, they may decide that a fresh approach is warranted.