Wrong to say I did not back Rwanda scheme as chancellor, says Sunak
The Prime Minister said it was his job to ensure value for money on every proposal while he was in the Treasury.
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Your support makes all the difference.Rishi Sunak said it was “wrong” to infer that he did not back the Rwanda scheme as chancellor because he sought “value for money” for taxpayers.
The Prime Minister has made the Rwanda migrants deportation policy central to his premiership since entering Downing Street in October 2022.
But a report has suggested that he was not convinced of the plan’s effectiveness while serving as chancellor under former prime minister Boris Johnson and wanted to see it scaled back.
According to No 10 papers seen by the BBC, Mr Sunak is described as believing the “deterrent won’t work”.
Mr Sunak, asked about the papers during his appearance on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, said he had not seen the documents the report was based on.
He did not rule out having voiced concerns about the cost of sending asylum seekers to the east African country when at the Treasury, instead saying it is the job of the chancellor to “always approach things from a position of scepticism”.
The Prime Minister went on to highlight efforts he had made since taking power to tackle migration via unauthorised routes, including by signing a returns agreement with Albania in December 2022 and introducing measures to cut small boat arrivals by more than a third last year.
I was doing my job to get good value for money for taxpayers
“My job (was) to ask probing questions of every proposal that crossed my desk as chancellor,” the Conservative Party leader said.
“You should always ask probing questions, you should always approach things from a position of scepticism to ensure that you get value for money for taxpayers.
“But to infer from that that I don’t believe in the scheme or the principle of deterrence is wrong.
“I was doing my job to get good value for money for taxpayers.
“I went through that process, funded the scheme with the prime minister and, as Prime Minister myself, I have made sure that we have a similar deterrent working with Albania.
“And I have made the point that it is because Albania is working that we should have confidence that the Rwanda scheme will work too.”
Labour has called on the UK Government to publish the No 10 papers that have been reported on.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “It is time the Tory Government was honest with the public, and publish both the papers outlining Rishi Sunak’s concerns and the full details of the cost of the scheme.”
Rishi Sunak is so weak that he has been reduced to pursuing policies that he knows don't work in order to appease the right of his party
The Rwanda policy is seen as key to Mr Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” ahead of the next election, which the Prime Minister has signalled is likely to be held in the second half of 2024.
The stalled scheme comes with a £290 million bill but no asylum seekers have been relocated as yet after the Supreme Court ruled the proposal unlawful.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill, a piece of legislation Mr Sunak hopes will prevent further legal challenges to the policy, is due to return to the Commons this month for debate.
Labour has warned that the cost of sending asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Kigali could rise to as much as £400 million.
The Liberal Democrats accused the Prime Minister of “pursuing policies that he knows don’t work” to appease hardliners on the Tory right.
Alistair Carmichael, the party’s home affairs spokesman, said: “Slippery Sunak needs to come clean with the public.
“Even the Prime Minister knows that this scheme only serves to throw more taxpayers’ money onto the ever growing bonfire of Conservative Government waste.
“Rishi Sunak is so weak that he has been reduced to pursuing policies that he knows don’t work in order to appease the right of his party.
“He is Prime Minister in name only.
“If the Conservative Government was serious about tackling this issue they would ditch this unworkable, staggeringly expensive, and immoral scheme.”
The intervention by the rival parties comes after the BBC said it has seen No 10 papers from March 2022, a month before the Rwanda plan was announced by then prime minister Boris Johnson, which showed that Mr Sunak had doubts over the impact of deporting migrants to Kigali.
The documents suggest he was also concerned about the cost of sending asylum seekers to Africa and wanted to limit the numbers.
The BBC said the documents revealed the “chancellor wants to pursue smaller volumes initially” with 500 flown to Rwanda in the first year of the scheme, instead of the proposed 1,500.
He then proposed “3,000 instead of 5,000 in years two and three”, the broadcaster’s report said.
The documents, which say No 10 suggested Mr Sunak needed to “consider his popularity with the base” over Rwanda, said the then chancellor was reluctant to fund “Greek-style reception centres” at a cost of £3.5 million a day to house migrants in favour of hotels, saying he felt hotels were a “cheaper” form of accommodation.