Sunak Derided For Betting £1,000 That Rwanda Refugee Flights Will Take Off

Rishi Sunak has been branded "out of touch" after taking a £1,000 bet with Piers Morgan on whether deportation flights to Rwanda will take off before the general election.

- Eleni Courea

Morgan said to the prime minister on TalkTV: "I'll bet you £1,000 to a refugee charity you don't get anybody on those planes before the election.

Will you take that bet?" Sunak shook hands with Morgan on the wager and said he was "working incredibly hard to get the people on the planes".

The government's attempt to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for their claims to be processed has been blocked by the Supreme Court, which ruled the policy unlawful in November. Sunak has insisted he can salvage the scheme.

Opposition parties criticised his decision to agree to the bet with Morgan. The shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, said: "Not a lot of people facing rising mortgages, bills and food prices are casually dropping £1,000 bets. It just shows that Rishi Sunak is totally out of touch with working people." The shadow immigration minister, Stephen Kinnock, said on X that the bet was "deeply distasteful" and that Sunak was "splashing his cash around like it's monopoly money betting on a policy that he has lost control over".