Rishi Sunak will not rule out spending thousands and thousands extra on Rwanda amid secrecy row

Rishi Sunak has refused to rule out ploughing thousands and thousands of kilos extra into resurrecting the Rwanda deal – amid rising stress to disclose its true value.

The Prime Minister is drawing up emergency laws in a determined try and get round a courtroom ruling that the deportation scheme is against the law. Top Supreme Court judges torpedoed the challenge after ruling that the African nation is not a secure place to ship asylum seekers.

So far the UK has handed over a confirmed £140million to the Rwandan authorities, and this week a prime civil servant hinted the true sum might be even increased. That’s regardless of ministers failing to ship a single asylum seeker there since a deal was agreed between the 2 governments final April.

Speaking to reporters on a flight to Dubai for the COP28 summit, Mr Sunak declined to say if there was a restrict on how a lot he is keen to spend. He stated: “Well I think the thing I’d say is we are already, incredibly frustratingly for the British people and the taxpayer, spending billions to house illegal migrants in hotels, especially, and that’s not right,”

He claimed that taxpayers stand to avoid wasting billions of kilos if the controversial challenge works. In spite of prime judges on the UK’s highest courtroom ruling Rwanda is unsafe for asylum seekers, largely as a result of danger of them being despatched to their homeland, the PM plans to get Parliament to declare it’s secure.

He stated: “I want the next stage of this is for us to bring forward legislation to make it unequivocally clear, and Parliament will be able to confirm that, that Rwanda is safe for the purpose of operationalising this scheme and thereby making sure there are no more domestic blockers to the proper functioning of this scheme.”

And the under-fire Prime Minister continued: “We are doing everything right … we will bring forward this legislation, it will be crystal clear and then I expect to get this scheme up and running.”

The Government is beneath rising stress to disclose how a lot the Rwanda scheme has value. Even Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, a passionate supporter of the challenge, voiced his frustration over the dearth of transparency.

On Wednesday a prime Home Office official did not deny that additional cash might have been given to the Rwandan authorities, however instructed MPs they’d have to attend months to search out out. Sir Matthew Rycroft instructed the cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee: “So there are additional payments each year and ministers have decided that the way to keep you and other colleagues in Parliament updated is once a year to set out the total additional payments to the government of Rwanda.

“And we’ll try this within the annual report and accounts.” The UK handed over an initial £120million when the deportation deal was agreed last year, and a further £20million covering 2023/24. But pressed on whether further sums have been paid, Sir Matthew said:”We will announce that within the regular manner subsequent summer time.”

Dame Diana Johnson, who chairs the committee, said it is hard to scrutinise the policy when the figures are being withheld. And Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said handing over more money is an “affront to the hard-working British taxpayer”.

Even Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson vented his fury, telling the committee: “I discover this totally staggering that the large boss hasn’t obtained a clue, not simply on this query, however almost each different query we have requested right this moment.”

Mr Sunak has previously said he expects a new treaty with Rwanda to address some of the concerns raised by Supreme Court judges. And ministers are working on emergency legislation they say will prevent legal challenges.

Sir Matthew said the Home Office is putting “ending touches” to the brand new treaty.

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