PM ‘hasn’t got a clue where 4,000 migrants earmarked for Rwanda have gone’ – Starmer

By David Lynch, Richard Wheeler and Ben Hatton, Reporters17th January 2024News EnglandGovernment / Politics, Immigration, News England, Refugees / Asylum, Top Stories

Rishi Sunak “hasn’t got a clue” where more than 4,000 missing migrants earmarked for removal to Rwanda have disappeared, Sir Keir Starmer has claimed.

The Prime Minister (pictured) would not be drawn into answering questions about reports the Home Office has lost contact with approximately 4,250 people identified for removal to the east African nation, with the Labour leader claiming he had “dodged” three attempts.

During a noisy exchange at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Sunak meanwhile accused Sir Keir of having provided legal representation to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist political group which the UK is now planning to ban as a terror organisation.

In his opening question to Mr Sunak, Sir Keir said: “The Government has been forced to admit that it has lost contact with 85% of the 5,000 people earmarked for removal to Rwanda. Has he found them yet?”

The Prime Minister did not directly respond to the question, but insisted that the Government was grasping issues with migration.

He said: “What I can tell (Sir Keir) is that in spite of him blocking every single attempt that we have taken, we have managed now because of our actions to reduce the number of people coming here by over a third last year, remove over 20,000 people from this country back to their home countries, carried out 70% more illegal enforcement raids, arrested hundreds of people, closed down thousands of bank accounts and processed over 100,000 cases, the biggest number in over 20 years.”

Sir Keir again challenged the Prime Minister over the missing migrants.

“My first thought is how do you actually lose 4,250 people?” he said, then listing a series of issues including rising costs on HS2 despite cuts to the route and money spent on the Rwanda policy without deportations so far.

“Suddenly you’re reminded that, of course, this farce of a Government could lose the people it was planning to remove.”

Mr Sunak reiterated that the Government has removed 20,000 people.

“He doesn’t actually care about solving this problem,” the Prime Minister said, adding: “He doesn’t have a plan.”

Sir Keir pressed again on the asylum seekers said to be missing, saying: “Spending £400 million on a plan not to get anybody to Rwanda whilst losing 4,000 people is not a plan, it’s a farce. Only this Government can waste hundreds of millions of pounds on a removals policy that doesn’t remove anyone.”

He added: “But he still hasn’t answered the question. So I’ll try again: what progress has he made in locating the 4,250 people his Government has apparently lost? He’s dodged it three times, where are they?”

Mr Sunak defended the Government’s record on immigration before adding: “It’s a bit rich to hear him in here pretending that he cares about how we actually stop the boats when he’s been crystal clear and said that even if the plan is working to reduce the numbers, he would still scrap it.

“It’s because he has no values, no conviction and no plan, and it’s back to square one.”

Sir Keir countered: “He hasn’t got a clue where they are, has he? I can tell you one place they aren’t and that’s Rwanda because the only thing they’ve sent to Rwanda is Cabinet ministers.”

Later, the Prime Minister sought to discredit Sir Keir’s position on the UK’s security, claiming the Labour leader had represented Hizb ut-Tahrir during his legal career as a prominent barrister.

Mr Sunak told MPs: “Just this week we had another example of him doing one thing, saying another, because this week he backed the Home Secretary (James Cleverly) in banning the terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, despite him personally using the European Court of Human Rights to try and stop them being banned.

“Don’t take my word for it, the extremists’ own press release said ‘the Hizb ut-Tahrir legal team led by Keir Starmer’.

“I know he doesn’t like talking about them because they have been a client, but when I see a group chanting jihad on our streets I ban them, he invoices them.”

The Prime Minister was also reprimanded by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle for using a prop at the despatch box during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Sir Keir said Mr Sunak had to be “talked out of scrapping” the Rwanda plan, adding: “When he sees his party tearing itself apart, hundreds of bald men scrapping over a single broken comb, doesn’t he wish that he had the courage to stick to his guns?”

Mr Sunak replied: “I have absolute conviction that the plan we’ve put in place will work because I believe it is important that we grip this problem.”

The Prime Minister highlighted lawyers who are backing the Government’s Rwanda plan, and lifted a document as he said to Sir Keir: “I know he’s always been more interested in what lefty lawyers have to say. I’ve even got here the textbook that he authored for them – and it’s called European Human Rights Law by Keir Starmer.”

Sir Lindsay intervened to say: “When I stand up, please sit down. Can I just say we don’t use props in this House and I will certainly ensure that if you do need reminding, I certainly will.”