No Rwanda flights before general election an ‘utter humiliation’ for Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak admitting no Rwanda flights will take off before the election is an “utter humiliation”, a Scottish MP has claimed.

Alistair Carmichael accused the Prime Minister of wasting millions on a “vanity project” after Mr Sunak conceded flights would not take off before the election.

It came less than 24 hours after Mr Sunak announced the nation would go to the polls on July 4. Labour has said they will scrap the plan.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted there will be no flights to Rwanda before the election.

Speaking on LBC on Thursday morning, Mr Sunak admitted that flights to Rwanda, which are central to the Government’s ambition to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel, will now take off “after the election”.

“If I’m elected, we will get the flights off,” he said. Pressed further on timing, he said: “No, after the election. The preparation work has already gone on.”

Responding, Mr Carmichael, the Lib Dem MP for Orkney and Shetland, said: "This is an utter humiliation and admission of defeat from a Prime Minister who has thrown millions at his failing vanity project.

"The Rwanda scheme has been an immoral and expensive disaster from day one. To think that the money already spent on this failing policy could have paid for nearly seven million GP appointments instead just adds insult to injury.

“No matter how the Conservatives try to twist the truth, the asylum backlog remains sky high. There are still 118,329 people waiting for an initial decision on their asylum claim – stuck in limbo and forced to rely on government funds. Rishi Sunak has failed to deliver on his promise to tackle the asylum backlog, just like he failed to stop the dangerous Channel crossings.

"The British people deserve a government that can finally implement a compassionate, effective asylum system after years of Conservative mismanagement."

Elsewhere, Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Sunak of never believing the Rwanda deportation plan would work.

The Prime Minister and Labour leader kicked off their campaigns on Thursday with Mr Sunak urging voters to back him at the polls if they want the government’s flagship immigration scheme to succeed.

Speaking on a visit to Gillingham in Kent, a traditional Conservative heartland, Sir Keir said: “I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election.

“We have to deal with the terrible loss of control of the border under this government. We have to tackle the small boats that are coming across, but nobody should be making that journey.”

Downing Street insisted Whitehall “continues to deliver existing government policies”, and the timetable “hasn’t changed for the flights”. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman insisted “we’ve always said those early weeks of July”.

The spokesman denied timings had been affected by a recent court ruling in Belfast that provisions of the UK’s Illegal Migration Act should be disapplied in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, net migration – the difference between the number of people legally arriving in the UK and leaving – dropped by 10 per cent last year after hitting a record-breaking 764,000 in 2022, official estimates showed.