Piers Morgan ‘wins £1,000 Rwanda wager’ after PM admits no flights earlier than election

On May 23, 2024

Piers Morgan has said he has won a £1,000 bet against Rishi Sunak after the PM admitted no flights to Rwanda will take off before the General Election.

In February, the presenter challenged the Prime Minister to bet £1,000 on whether deportation flights to Rwanda will get going before the election. The Prime Minister shook on the wagerover the success of his crisis-hit plan to ship some asylum seekers to the African country.

But today, the PM admitted that flights won’t take off before the July 4 General Election. In fresh humiliation for the Prime Minister, Piers tweeted: “So, I win our £1,000 charity bet…”

Mr Sunak made the concession on the first day of the campaign after he gambled his political future on an early election on Wednesday. As he toured broadcast studios, the Tory leader boasted: “If I’m elected, we will get the flights off.” But pressed on the timing by LBC, he admitted: “No, after the election. The preparation work has already gone on”.

Mr Sunak was branded “callous” and “out of touch” for shaking on a £1,000 bet on deportation flights. At the time, Shadow Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth saying: “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.”

Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Probably the least Prime Ministerial thing I’ve seen in 9 years in Parliament. Deeply distasteful. A Prime Minister splashing his cash around like it’s monopoly money – betting on a policy that he has lost control over.”

SNP Cabinet Office spokeswoman Kirsty Blackman said: “Placing a bet on the lives of vulnerable refugees fleeing war and persecution is grotesque, callous and downright cruel – and shows just how out of touch Westminster is with the values of people in Scotland.

“It’s particularly shameful that Rishi Sunak, one of the richest men in the UK, thinks it’s appropriate to accept a £1,000 wager – and will remind ordinary working families that near billionaire Sunak doesn’t have a clue what life is like for the rest of us in a cost of living crisis.”