John Mayor assaults ‘odious’ Rwanda scheme as prime Tories plot to deliver it again

Ex-Tory PM Sir John Major has lashed out at the “odious” and “un-British” Rwanda scheme – as two leadership hopefuls plot to bring it back.

Sir John described the costly project as “un-Christian” and said it is “not the way to treat people”. He warned the Conservatives against lurching to the far-right and said a merger with Reform UK would be “fatal”. One of Keir Starmer’s first acts after the General Election was to torpedo the project, which was set to cost taxpayers billions of pounds in the coming years.

Despite MPs reacting with horror when the huge sums spent were revealed, two Tory leadership candidates – Robert Jenrick and James Cleverly – say they want to resurrect it. Sir John, who was Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, said: “I thought it was un-Conservative, un-British, if one dare say in a secular society, un-Christian, and unconscionable and I thought that this is really not the way to treat people.”

And he hit out at claims it would discourage small boat crossings. The former PM told the BBC: “Are they seriously saying to me that somewhere in the backwoods of some North Africa country, they actually know what the British Parliament has legislated for? I think not.”

He went on to brand the scheme “odious”. The project is set to be a key battleground as leadership candidates try and woo the party membership. Mr Jenrick was the first to say he’d bring the Rwanda scheme back, before former Home Secretary Mr Cleverly said he would “resurrect that incredibly important partnership”.

Sir John urged the party to focus on centre-right voters, saying this is “”where our natural support really lies”. He pointed out that the party lost more seats to Labour and the Lib Dems than to Reform.

He said: “We lost five [seats] to Reform UK and people are jumping up and down, and some, rather reckless people are saying, well we must merge with them. Well, that will be fatal.”

However, Sir John said he was “optimistic” about the party’s future, adding: “We have had such a bad defeat, we have got a base upon which we can build, in a wholly new and, I think, potentially effective way.”

Sir John said he had not decided who he was backing to be the next Tory leader, who will be announced on 2 November.

But he added: “I would like to support someone who’s going to look at the long-term problems and make a suggestion as to which direction we should go and bring people back into the party who are genuinely centre-right.”

If he does it will reopen a deep wound within the Conservative Party. Tory peers were among the harshest critics of the plan, with ex-Home Secretary Ken Clarke saying he hoped the “dangerous” Safety of Rwanda Bill was struck down in court.

Last month The Mirror revealed that officials in the Foreign Office were drawing up a communications plan preparing for war to break out in Rwanda – even as Tories voted it was a safe country. Former Foreign Secretary David Cameron was briefed on a strategy demanding civilians were protected and aid allowed in.

Memos obtained by this newspaper show preparations were underway in the Foreign Office in case tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) escalated. One email, sent on January 17, shows Lord Cameron and his deputy, Andrew Mitchell, were warned of “heightened regional tensions” after troops crossed the border into Rwanda. But on the very same day, Rishi Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons with no mention of growing war fears.

In July Ms Cooper told MPs that £700million had been spent on the project. And she went on to say that a further £10billion was set to be ploughed into the scheme in coming years.