Rwanda flights will not start until July’

The Rwanda deportation scheme will not begin until the summer, Rishi Sunak admitted yesterday, acknowledging a further delay to the policy even as MPs and peers began debating it for the final time.

- Kiran Stacey, Eleni Courea, Patrick Wintour

The prime minister told a press conference that the first flights taking asylum seekers to Kigali would not take off for another 10-12 weeks, despite having previously promised they would do so in the spring.

Sunak announced his revised timetable hours before MPs began what he insisted would be a final day of debate on the Rwanda bill, with members in the Commons and the Lords braced for a long night.

"Enough is enough," Sunak said. "No more prevarication, no more delay. Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes. No ifs, no buts.

"Starting from the moment that the bill passes, we will begin the process of removing those identified for the first flight.

We have prepared for this moment." Sunak has put the Rwanda scheme at the centre of his promise to stop Channel crossings in small boats, despite warnings that even the threat of deportation would not deter desperate people from trying to do so.