Tories Planned To Spent £10bn On Rwanda Scheme, Yvette Cooper Claims

Posted on 22/07/2024 by Boris Clair

The home secretary has claimed the Tories intended on spending £10 billion on the now-scrapped Rwanda deportation scheme.

In the Commons on Monday, Yvette Cooper said the full expense of the plan to send asylum seekers who arrive to the UK in small boats to Rwanda was not fully disclosed to parliament.

The policy, which Labour dropped when it got into power earlier this month, has already cost the British taxpayer £700m over the last two and a half years, according to Cooper.

In that time, only four volunteers were deported to the African country, she said.

Cooper continued: “Those costs include £290m payments to Rwanda, chartering flights that never took off, detaining hundreds of people and then releasing them, and paying for more 1,000 civil servants to work on the scheme.

“A scheme which sent four people. It is the most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen.”

Cooper also said if the scheme had ever “got going” it would only cover a “minority” of arrivals and the taxpayer would still have to pay out “no matter how many people were relocated”.

The cabinet minister added: “Over the six years of the migration and economic development partnership forecast, the previous government had planned to spend over £10bn of taxpayers money on the scheme – they did not tell parliament that.”

Cooper dubbed it a “costly con” which has been paid for by the taxpayer.

Even before Labour were elected, the Rwanda scheme was blocked repeatedly with legal challenges which stopped any flights with forced deportations from ever getting off the ground.

The Conservatives ended up suggesting the UK leave the European Convention on Human Rights to prevent European judges blocking any flights.

But on Monday, new PM Keir Starmer said: “Let me be clear, there is no need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.”

A “hear, hear” rang out around the chamber at that.

Starmer continued: “That is not consistent with the values with that blood bond, so we won’t withdraw – not now, not ever.

“Because, Mr Speaker, the basic fact of the priorities of the British people do require us to work across borders with our partners.

“And a government of service at home requires a government of strength abroad.

“That is our role, it’s always been our role – Britain belongs on the world stage.”

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Keir Starmer: \"Let me be clear, there is no need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights… not now, not ever… Britain belongs on the world stage.\" pic.twitter.com/58lWXA6Pmr

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) July 22, 2024

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Keir Starmer: “Let me be clear, there is no need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights… not now, not ever… Britain belongs on the world stage.” pic.twitter.com/58lWXA6Pmr

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) July 22, 2024

‘Evidence Of Failure’: Rishi Sunak Slammed After Breaking Pledge To ‘Stop The Boats’

Posted on 01/01/2024 by Boris Clair

Rishi Sunak has been slammed after breaking his key promise to voters to “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel.

A total of 29,437 people made the perilous crossing from France in 2023, according to provisional Home Office figures.

Although that is a 36% fall on the 2022 figure of 45,774, it is still the second highest total since the crossings began in 2018.

It is almost exactly a year since Sunak made stopping the boats one of his five pledges to voters.

He said at the time: “No tricks, no ambiguity – we’re either delivering for you or we’re not.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described the fall in small boat crossings since 2022 as “modest” and “helped by the weather”.

She said: “This has been the second highest number of small boat crossings on record, 100 times higher than it was five years ago – evidence of the failure of Rishi Sunak’s promise to stop the boats this year.

“We also have record high numbers in asylum hotels, 20% higher than when the Prime Minister promised to end them a year ago, costing the taxpayer £8m a day.

“The Tories have lost control of our border security and broken our asylum system. They are failing to tackle the criminal gangs where smuggler convictions have dropped by 30%, they’ve let the backlog soar and returns of failed asylum seekers are 50% lower than under the last Labour government.

“Too often they focus on gimmick rather than getting a grip.”

Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: “The idea this is a victory for Rishi Sunak is absolutely laughable.

“In any other walk of life, someone meeting less than a third of their target would be in line for the sack. Yet Sunak expects praise. What a farce.

“This has been a mess of the government’s own making. Rishi Sunak promised the British public to stop all small boat crossings, anything less will be seen as a failure come the election this year.”

Sunak admitted last month that there is “no firm date” for when the small boat crossings will finally end.

He is pinning his hopes on parliament passing his Safety of Rwanda Bill, which could finally lead to asylum seekers being deported to the east African country.

Ministers say that will act as a deterrent to immigrants trying to reach the UK, despite little evidence to back that up.

Sunak has so far only met one of his five pledges by halving the rate of inflation.

Just last month, his promise to grow the economy was dealt a major blow when it emerged that GDP fell by 0.3% in October.

Yvette Cooper Has The Perfect Response To Suella Braverman’s ‘Tofu-Eating Wokerati’ Rant

Posted on 18/10/2022 by Boris Clair

Suella Braverman has faced ridicule from her opposite number after the home secretary sounded off about a “tofu-eating wokerati” and a “coalition of chaos”.

The cabinet minister renewed her attacks on opponents of the Tory party – a habit that has made her a darling of the right – during a Commons debate on the Public Order Bill.

It includes a new offence of obstructing major transport networks, interfering with key national infrastructure – such as railways, roads and printing presses – and new powers for police to stop and search people to seize items intended for so-called locking-on.

Lock-on tactics have been repeatedly employed by groups such as Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, and include protesters gluing or otherwise attaching themselves to roads or other areas to cause disruption.

Braverman went on the offensive in light of the Just Stop Oil protest that has seen the Dartford Crossing – the only way to cross the Thames east of London by road – blocked for the second day in a row.

She accused opposition parties of being a “coalition of chaos”, adding: “It’s the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, dare I say, the anti-growth coalition that we have to thank for the disruption that we are seeing on our roads today.”

This entire interaction on the Public Order Bill is something to behold.

Braverman blames Just Stop Oil’s highway disruption today on Labour, Guardian readers, and people who eat tofu. Yvette Cooper’s response follows… pic.twitter.com/9SSIK9RPpy

— WILL LLOYD (@willgeorgelloyd) October 18, 2022

But Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper branded Braverman’s words “astonishing”, adding: “The home secretary actually talked about a coalition of chaos, we can see it in front of us as we speak.”

She continued that she understood government “concerns”.

Cooper said: “When they face issues when they’ve got a selfish minority wreaking havoc, you’ve got someone resisting all attempts to remove them, causing serious disruption, disorder, chaos, with serious consequences for the public, for business, for politics and for financial markets.

“But they’ve glued themselves under the desk. With honourable members opposite, we wish them luck with their attempts to extricate another failing Tory prime minister from Number 10.

“But I suggest it isn’t a reason to change the law for everyone else.”

Cooper was of course referring to Liz Truss and the turmoil caused by her mini-budget, which crashed the financial markets and saw the pound fall to an all-time low.

The backlash led to two major u-turns by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, before he was eventually sacked and replaced by Jeremy Hunt, who has since torched the low-tax, free-markeeter economic plan Truss staked her leadership bid on.

Truss now faces continued humiliation as a growing number of her MPs want the PM to quit, with one even comparing her premiership to a dumpster fire. She has vowed to fight on.

Braverman is reading it. It’s not even off the cuff. Someone – perhaps a team of people – have sat around and decided to write this crap out and then deliver it in the chamber of the House of Commons.

It’s like they gave twitter troll Sue739884 the keys to the Home Office https://t.co/h0UTFJg5OH

— Otto English (@Otto_English) October 18, 2022

Once you get past the circus & the shouting you’re left with the fact that the serving Home Secretary uses phrases like “Guardian reading, tofu eating wokerati”. Somebody who holds one of the highest positions of state & talks like Alex Jones. pic.twitter.com/CK7YCHv50b

— Nick Pettigrew🇺🇦 (@Nick_Pettigrew) October 18, 2022

Only 1% Of UK Arrivals Are Being Made To Quarantine In Hotels

Posted on 24/02/2021 by Boris Clair

Only 1% of people arriving in the UK every day are required to quarantine in government-approved hotels, the Border Force director has revealed.

Speaking to the Commons home affairs committee on Wednesday, Paul Lincoln said “about” 14,000 or 15,000 people were coming into the country per day, which was “95% down” on the usual number for this time of year.

From February 15, people arriving from 33 “red list” countries including Portugal and South Africa have had to spend 10 days in isolation in hotels.

Lincoln said on average 150 people per day were being placed into the facilities.

Arrivals who are not required to quarantine in hotels must self-isolate at home. Lincoln told MPs the compliance with home isolation was “at least 85%”.

Amid concerns about new variants of Covid being imported into the UK, the Border Force director said the number of people arriving with coronavirus was “substantially lower” than 0.5% of the domestic case rate.

But Lincoln was unable to give a precise figure, saying Public Health England (PHE) would be publishing the number “in due course”.

Committee chair and Labour MP Yvette Cooper said the figures showed there was a “very leaky system” of quarantine.

Under England’s current national lockdown, international travel is illegal apart from in some limited circumstances.

But Boris Johnson’s roadmap for lifting the restrictions, announced on Monday, could see international travel could start as early as May 17.

It would need to be approved by a new “Global Travel Taskforce” that is being set up by the government to assess the risk of importing new variants of the virus from overseas.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, told the committee on Tuesday it was “far too early” for people to book holidays abroad.

Who Could Be The Next Labour Leader?

Posted on 13/12/2019 by Boris Clair

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Brexit Delay Bill Becomes Law As MPs And Peers Rush Through Yvette Cooper Move To Stop No-Deal

Posted on 09/04/2019 by Boris Clair

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