James Cleverly slams ‘comic’ Labour plan to scrap Rwanda scheme just as ‘deterrent starts to work’
10 May 2024, 17:21 | Updated: 10 May 2024, 18:05
Tom Swarbrick speaks to Home Secretary James Cleverly
The Home Secretary has slammed Labour's 'comical' plan to scrap the Rwanda scheme just as he claims 'it is starting to work'.
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The Government has insisted the Rwanda scheme is starting to work because migrants who have fled to Ireland have 'refused' to go back to the UK due to the threat of being deported to the African nation.
Speaking exclusively to LBC's Tom Swarbrick on Friday, James Cleverly said: “If the Labour party got their way, removed the Rwanda deterrent, actually remove…the work we’re putting in place…their grand strategy is to do some of the things that we’re already doing but not all of the things.
“Most important of all, they’re going to take the Rwanda deterrent off the table and somehow, magically hope by doing less, they’ll reduce numbers.”
Cleverly: 'We are starting to see the deterrent having an effect'
Earlier today, LBC spoke to an asylum seeker who claimed he smuggled himself straight from France to Dublin on a container ship out of fear of getting sent to Rwanda if he went to the UK.
Speaking to LBC from a migrant encampment in Dublin, 20-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker Fawad said he heard of the Rwanda plan while he was in France, after a journey spanning thousands of miles on which several of his friends died.
"Everyone is kind of [scared] - who would want to go to Rwanda?" he asked.
Reports have emerged that migrants are choosing to cross over the border from Northern Ireland to the Republic since the government passed its plan to send asylum seekers who arrived illegally to Rwanda.
And a Syrian asylum seeker told LBC's Tom Swarbrick earlier this week that migrants are choosing to return to France from the UK to avoid being sent to the east African country.
Read More: Hundreds of MI5 officers to be hired to help stop migrant boat crossings, Sir Keir Starmer vows
It comes after the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said earlier today that the Rwanda plan was a "gimmick" that would be scrapped immediately.
The Labour leader wants to end the Rwanda policy permanently to establish the border security command, described as an "elite force, not a Cinderella service".
"We will restore serious government to our borders, tackle this problem at source and replace the Rwanda policy permanently," he said at a speech in Dover this morning.
Asked by LBC's Political Editor Natasha Clark about his timetable to scrap the Conservative's Rwanda plan, and if it would occur within the first hundred days of a Labour government, Sir Keir said he would "get rid of the policy straight away".
"I'm not going to continue a policy I don't think is going to work, which is going to cost a fortune," the Labour leader said.
"I would rather use the money that's being thrown at the Rwanda scheme and put it behind the command that we want to set up."
He continued: "The command can be set up very, very quickly as well. It doesn't require primary legislation. Some of the powers I have outlined are already in primary legislation - others will require some legislation which I think we can pass very quickly. So I see this as a very fast timetable to get this off the ground."
The "elite Border Security Command" will be led by a former police, military or intelligence chief and recruit hundreds of new specialist investigators.
It will have powers to carry out border control stop-and-searches, along with new financial investigation powers to search and seize warrants targeting organised immigration crime.
Sir Keir said he does not doubt that the Conservative Government will get flights running to Rwanda but said the flagship deportation policy would not work as he insisted "our asylum system must be rebuilt".
He accused the government's scheme of being an "absolute waste of money" and "a gimmick, not a solution".
