Sunak's Rwanda Plan Is ‘Not Credible', MPs Report Finds

Rishi Sunak has been dealt a huge blow after parliament’s most influential committee concluded that the Home Office “does not have a credible plan” for sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.

- HOLLY BANCROFT , DAVID MADDOX

The unanimous report by the Public Accounts Committee from a cross-party group of MPs with a Tory majority said it had “little confidence” in the Home Office’s ability to implement the Rwanda plan.

The Rwanda deportation flights have long been Mr Sunak’s solution to “stopping the small boats” and ending the flow of asylum seekers to British shores.

His early attempts to get flights off the ground to the East African nation had been thwarted by a Supreme Court ruling and he was forced to fight for months against a right-wing Tory rebellion and resistance in the Lords to get emergency legislation through to allow them to go ahead.

The plan is a key plank in his attempt to see off the threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform Party of splitting the vote on the right in the general election. But Mr Sunak had already been damaged by having to admit that it would not be possible to send any flights before the election on 4 July.

In the new report, MPs said that the Home Office is unwilling to say how many people it is planning to relocate to Rwanda, and how it would do this.

They wrote: “The Home Office asserts that it has robust operational plans, which are dependent on the flow of relocations.

“However, we are concerned by the Home Office’s inability to explain the practical details including, for example, where those people who may be subject to relocations currently are and the arrangements for escorting them to Rwanda.”

The committee, which has a majority of Conservative MPs but is chaired by Hackney Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, said that the Home Office had made “unacceptable and avoidable mistakes” when trying to set up large accommodation sites for asylum seekers.