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The prime minister has said the first deportation flights to Rwanda will leave “in 10 to 12 weeks”, hours before MPs are due to vote on his emergency legislation.

Rishi Sunak said teams across the government were “working flat out to deliver this genuine game changer” – with an airfield on standby and booked commercial charter planes to get the first flights off to the African nation.

“No ifs, no buts, these flights are going to Rwanda,” the prime minister vowed.

Mr Sunak was speaking at a press conference in Downing Street just hours before MPs and peers vote on his emergency legislation, possibly well into the evening.

The controversial bill returns to the Commons following several rounds of parliamentary ping-pong, which has seen the Lords express their opposition to the proposals through a series of amendments the prime minister does not accept.

Politics latest: Rwanda deportations will start ‘come what may’

Mr Sunak vowed last week that today would be the day the bill finally got through parliament, telling reporters there would be “no more prevarication, no more delay”.

He repeated that assertion today, telling journalists: “Enough is enough”, adding: “Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes.”

The prime minister described his plan – which will see asylum seekers who arrive in the UK via irregular means sent to Rwanda instead – as an “indispensable deterrent ” that removes the incentive for people to make the dangerous Channel crossing.

He declined to give operational details due to the “loud minority of people who will do absolutely anything and everything to disrupt this policy from succeeding” – but promised there would be a “regular rhythm” of “multiple flights a month through the summer and beyond”.

What is Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill and why is it taking so long to pass through parliament?

First concocted under Boris Johnson’s leadership, the Rwanda scheme aims to tackle the migration crisis by sending asylum seekers who arrive in the UK by small boat to the African nation.

The controversial scheme, which has been denounced as cruel and unworkable by critics, has faced multiple setbacks, most notably in the Supreme Court, which ruled it “unlawful” last year.

To circumvent the Supreme Court ruling, Mr Sunak proposed a new Safety of Rwanda Bill to declare in UK law that the country is in fact a safe one to deport asylum seekers to.

Alongside the bill, the government also signed a treaty with Rwanda it says guarantees that no asylum seeker sent there will be sent back to their country of origin where they face a risk of persecution – a key concern of the court.

The bill in its current form gives ministers the powers to disregard sections of the Human Rights Act, but does not go as far as allowing them to dismiss the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) entirely – a demand of some on the right.

Some peers have expressed their displeasure with the bill by adding a series of amendments that have delayed its passage through parliament through a process known as parliamentary ping pong.

Among the changes they want to see is that Rwanda cannot be declared safe until a report is completed, that appeals based on safety would be allowed and
that exemptions would be allowed for people who served with or for the British armed forces.

Mr Sunak has so far hinted that he is not willing to accept amendments proposed by the Lords – hence the tense standoff that has occurred over the past few months.

This evening the bill will return to the Commons to be voting on by MPs, before being sent back to the Lords for further consideration. It is at this stage that we will see whether the Lords will continue to dig in their heels, or, as is convention, back down and let the bill pass.

After promising that the first flight would take off in 10 to 12 weeks, which he said was later than he would have liked, he took aim at the Labour Party, whom he accused of blocking the bill in the Lords with their series of amendments.

Asked by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby whether the bill’s likely passage would be a “moment of success” for him, Mr Sunak replied: “Success is when the boats have been stopped. That’s what the country expects, that’s what the government and I are committed to delivering.”

While he refused to go into “sensitive” operations details, the prime minister did outline a number of measures the government was taking to prepare for the first flights to take off.

He said there were now 2,200 detention spaces and that 200 dedicated caseworkers had been trained to process claims quickly.

Around 25 courtrooms have been made available and 150 judges will provide 5,000 sitting days, he added.

Mr Sunak also said there were 500 “highly trained individuals ready to escort illegal migrants all the way to Rwanda, with 300 more trained in the coming week”.

Sunak is desperate to be heard – but is the public listening anymore?



Mhari Aurora

Political correspondent

@MhariAurora

Desperate to convince voters he and his party can still be trusted to “stop the boats”, the prime minister stood at the podium in Downing Street with that very slogan slapped on the front of it.

But is that slogan a reminder of a promise, or a reminder of a failure?

Calling a press conference to tell us all what you are going to do to get this policy off the ground may seem rather unnecessary, but it is a warning shot to the Lords who have continued to stop the bill becoming law due to their concerns around its legality and protection of vulnerable people.

Mr Sunak insists flights will take off in 10-12 weeks from now, and that lawyers, judges and even courtrooms have been prepared to deal with legal challenges and obstacles to getting flights off to Rwanda.

However, even if flights do take off, is the public even listening anymore?

Public apathy and loss of trust could be Mr Sunak’s biggest hurdle to climb even if this embattled prime minister can prove he can make Suella Braverman’s dream a reality.

“This is one of the most complex operational endeavours the Home Office has carried out,” Mr Sunak said. “But we are ready, plans are in place and these flights will go, come what may.”

And in a dig at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which blocked the first flight to Rwanda from taking off in the summer of 2022 with one of its rulings, the prime minister said: “No foreign court will stop us from getting flights off.”

Hinting that he could be prepared to leave the ECHR – a key demand of some on the right, including former home secretary Suella Braverman – Mr Sunak said he would prioritise “national security” over “membership of a foreign court”.

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PM adamant Rwanda flights will happen

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper branded the Rwanda scheme “extortionate” and denied Labour had blocked the bill in the Lords.

“The government has an overall majority in parliament and could have passed this bill a month ago if they had scheduled it then, but as we know Rishi Sunak always looks for someone else to blame,” she told broadcasters.

Read more:
Sunak set for week-long blitz of announcements

Rwanda enforcement officers told all leave is cancelled

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“This is costing the taxpayer half-a-billion pounds for a scheme that will only cover 1% of asylum seekers.

“This is an extortionate scheme. They should be putting that money into boosting our border security instead. That is what Labour would do.”

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said following the press conference: “No amount of sound bites or spin can change the fact that the Conservative’s Rwanda scheme is a colossal failure.

“Millions of pounds and years of government attention have already been wasted, with absolutely nothing to show for it.

“It’s time for Rishi Sunak to get a grip, get to the palace and give this country the election it is crying out for.”

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‘Shameful’ that black boys in London more likely to die than white boys, says Met Police chief

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'Shameful' that black boys in London more likely to die than white boys, says Met Police chief

It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.

The commissioner told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that relations with minority communities “is difficult for us”.

Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.

“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”

He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.

However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”

Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.

“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.

The Met Police chief’s admission comes two years after an official report found the force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

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Police chase suspected phone thief

Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.

She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.

At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.

However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.

After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.

A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.

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Unite votes to suspend Angela Rayner over Birmingham bin strike

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Unite votes to suspend Angela Rayner over Birmingham bin strike

Labour’s largest union donor, Unite, has voted to suspend Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner over her role in the Birmingham bin strike row.

Members of the trade union, one of the UK’s largest, also “overwhelmingly” voted to “re-examine its relationship” with Labour over the issue.

They said Ms Rayner, who is also housing, communities and local government secretary, Birmingham Council’s leader, John Cotton, and other Labour councillors had been suspended for “bringing the union into disrepute”.

There was confusion over Ms Rayner’s membership of Unite, with her office having said she was no longer a member and resigned months ago and therefore could not be suspended.

But Unite said she was registered as a member. Parliament’s latest register of interests had her down as a member in May.

Politics latest: Italy and other EU countries have ‘huge doubts’ about legality of UK migrant deal

The union said an emergency motion was put to members at its policy conference in Brighton on Friday.

More on Angela Rayner

Unite is one of the Labour Party’s largest union donors, donating £414,610 in the first quarter of 2025 – the highest amount in that period by a union, company or individual.

The union condemned Birmingham’s Labour council and the government for “attacking the bin workers”.

Mountains of rubbish have been piling up in the city since January after workers first went on strike over changes to their pay, with all-out strike action starting in March. An agreement has still not been made.

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Rat catcher tackling Birmingham’s bins problem

Ms Rayner and the councillors had their membership suspended for “effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to £8,000”, the union added.

‘Missing in action’

General secretary Sharon Graham told Sky News on Saturday morning: “Angela Rayner, who has the power to solve this dispute, has been missing in action, has not been involved, is refusing to come to the table.”

She had earlier said: “Unite is crystal clear, it will call out bad employers regardless of the colour of their rosette.

“Angela Rayner has had every opportunity to intervene and resolve this dispute but has instead backed a rogue council that has peddled lies and smeared its workers fighting huge pay cuts.

“The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council, is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises.

“People up and down the country are asking whose side is the Labour government on and coming up with the answer not workers.”

SN pics from 10/04/25 Tyseley Lane, Tyseley, Birmingham showing some rubbish piling up because of bin strikes
Image:
Piles of rubbish built up around Birmingham because of the strike over pay

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said the government’s “priority is and always has been the residents of Birmingham”.

He said the decision by Unite workers to go on strike had “caused disruption” to the city.

“We’ve worked to clean up streets and remain in close contact with the council […] as we support its recovery,” he added.

A total of 800 Unite delegates voted on the motion.

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Binance’s CZ threatens to sue Bloomberg over Trump stablecoin report

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Binance’s CZ threatens to sue Bloomberg over Trump stablecoin report

Binance’s CZ threatens to sue Bloomberg over Trump stablecoin report

Binance co-founder CZ has dismissed a Bloomberg report linking him to the Trump-backed USD1 stablecoin, threatening legal action over alleged defamation.

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