![Abandoned Rwanda project has already cost £700m in ‘most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money ever seen’, says Home Secretary | Politics News Abandoned Rwanda project has already cost £700m in ‘most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money ever seen’, says Home Secretary | Politics News](https://i0.wp.com/e3.365dm.com/24/04/1600x900/skynews-rishi-sunak-rwanda-bill_6529662.jpg?20240422105859&w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
Yvette Cooper told MPs that Rishi Sunak’s government was set to spend £10bn on the project, which Labour has now abandoned.
The previous government was prepared to spend £10bn on the now-abandoned programme in Rwanda, the Home Secretary has revealed.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Yvette Cooper said £700 million of taxpayers’ money had already been spent on the scheme, which the Conservatives introduced to deter people travelling in small boats across the Channel.
Ms Cooper called the plan – which would have sent people arriving in small boats to the African country for processing – “the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money I have ever seen”.
The Labour Home Secretary said the £700m spent so far had not been spent on sending migrants who arrived in small boats to Rwanda, but volunteers.
She said: “Two years after the previous government launched it, I can report that it has already cost the British taxpayer £700 million, to send just four volunteers.
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“These costs include payments of £290 million to Rwanda, chartering flights that never took off, detaining and then releasing hundreds of people, and paying more than a thousand civil servants working on the project.
“A plan to send four people is the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money I have ever seen.”
She added: “In the future, costs will get worse.
“Over the six-year planning period for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, the previous government planned to spend over £10 billion of taxpayers’ money on the programme – they didn’t tell Parliament that.”
Almost immediately after coming to power, Labour abandoned the Rwanda project, which it had repeatedly described as an expensive gimmick.
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The government had previously announced that it would do so embezzle tens of millions of pounds of the project to create a new Border Security Command (BSC) to combat the gangs of people smugglers who organise Channel crossings.
According to the government, the BSC will be integrated with the security services, the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement and the Border Force, to provide “strategic direction”.
Ms Cooper also announced an audit of funds sent to Kigali. Work The administration is looking for ways to save or recoup money spent under the Conservatives.
Ahead of the general election, Sir Keir Starmer said his party wanted to spend around £75m a year on its new border system, from the scrapped budget. Rwanda deportation program.
The Prime Minister earlier this weekend described Tory-era plans to send asylum seekers to Africa as “dead and buried”.
Responding to Ms Cooper in the House of Commons, former Home Secretary James Cleverly claimed that Labour had already made the problem of small boat crossings worse during its two and a half weeks in government.
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The shadow Home Secretary told MPs: “The reality is that everyone knows, including the people smugglers, that the problem of small boats is going to get worse, and it has already gotten worse under Labour because there is no deterrent.”
Mr Cleverly also criticised the government for abandoning the scheme, saying: “The fact that there is now no safe third country to return people who cannot be sent home means we are left wondering where are they going to send people who come from places like Afghanistan or Iraq, to Syria?
“Has she started negotiations on return agreements with the Taliban, or with the ayatollahs of Iran, or with Assad in Syria?
“And if she does not send those who arrived here on small boats to Rwanda, to which local authorities will she send them?
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“We were closing hotels when I was in government and I wonder which local authorities will receive these asylum seekers if not Rwanda – will it be Rochdale, Romford or Richmond?”
Meanwhile, Ms Cooper also joked with Mr Cleverly about previous reports that he had privately called the Rwanda plan “crazy”.
“I’m sorry, sending four volunteers to Rwanda doesn’t deter anyone from anything, and the idea that he would spend £10 billion on this fantasy, this fiction, this gimmick rather than doing the hard work,” she said.
Referring to a possible Conservative Party leadership bid after Rishi Sunak steps down She added: “I don’t think he believes everything he said, he’s just saying it for his Conservative leadership race.
“He is simply too weak to tell the truth to his party. He thought the whole policy on Rwanda was completely crazy and he fought to defend it. This is simply not serious.”