Sunak says airfield on standby and planes booked for Rwanda deportations
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 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, not 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: Planes are booked, Sunak says – 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 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”.
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?
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,” he continued. “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 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:
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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.”
An illegal immigrant who was involved in smuggling more than 3,000 others into Europe has been sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Egyptian national Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid, who arrived in the UK in a small boat in October 2022, worked with people smuggling networks in North Africa to bring hundreds of migrants at a time from Libya to Italy.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) believes the 42-year-old’s case is the first time someone has been convicted for organising migrant crossings of the Mediterranean from the UK.
Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid being arrested by plain clothes officers. Pic: NCA
Ebid had a “significant managerial role within an organised crime group” and his “primary motivation was to make money out of human trafficking”, Judge Adam Hiddleston said.
He told Ebid the “conspiracy that you were a part of generated millions of pounds” and he must have been a “beneficiary” of “a significant amount”.
He said the “truly staggering” amount of money came from the “hard-earned savings of desperate individuals”, who were “ruthlessly and cynically exploited” by Ebid and the crime group.
Ahmed Ramadan Mohamad Ebid. Pic: NCA
Details of the case emerged during a rare Newton hearing – a trial within a trial that takes place when the prosecution and defence disagree about facts of a case.
Ebid was living in Isleworth, west London, at the time of his arrest in June 2023.
He later admitted to being involved in enabling seven fishing boats to make the dangerous crossing to Europe, with a total of 3,781 migrants on board. He said he only played a minor role in the operation but a judge rejected this claim in March.
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Pictures of small boats used for crossings were found on Ebid’s phone. Pics: NCA
Ebid, who had worked as a fisherman in the Mediterranean, helped two boats carrying hundreds of migrants cross the sea in a convoy just three weeks after he arrived in the UK.
Once the boats were in Italian waters, a satellite phone on board one vessel was used to call the Italian coastguard, who rescued everyone and brought them ashore.
A boat used by Ebid for an illegal crossing. Pic: PA/NCA
Ebid’s mobile phone had been in contact with the satellite phone 34 times over two days, the prosecution told the Newton hearing.
He used the same method to help five more boats make the crossing in the next six months, it added.
Each migrant was charged an average of around £3,200, bringing the criminals involved more than £12m, the NCA said.
Investigators found pictures of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey and screenshots of money transfers on a phone seized from him.
In a conversation with an associate which was recorded via a listening device planted by NCA officers, Ebid said migrants were not to carry phones with them on boats, adding: “Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw in the sea.”
Ebid was sentenced to 25 years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Tim Burton, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Ebid “played a leading role” in an operation “which breached immigration laws and endangered lives, for his own and others’ financial gain”.
Jacque Beer, of the NCA, said: “Ebid was part of a crime network who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats.
“The cruel nature of his business was demonstrated by the callous way he spoke of throwing migrants into the sea if they didn’t follow his rules.”
UK
Second man charged and appears in court over fires at properties and car linked to Sir Keir Starmer
A second man has appeared in court charged in connection with a series of fires linked to Sir Keir Starmer.
Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc was remanded in custody after a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday accused of arson with intent to endanger life.
He has been charged with conspiring with Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and others unknown to “damage by fire property belonging to another, intending to damage the property, and intending to endanger the life of another or being reckless as to whether the life of another would thereby be endangered”.
The 26-year-old, from Romford, east London, was arrested by counter-terrorism officers at Luton Airport on Saturday as he tried to travel to Romania, the court heard.
With the help of a Russian interpreter, Carpiuc, who was born in Ukraine, spoke only to confirm his identity in a short hearing.
The charge relates to three fires.
Two of the fires took place in Kentish Town, north London. One occurred during the early hours of 12 May at the home where Sir Keir lived before he became prime minister and moved into Downing Street.
A car was set alight in the same street four days earlier on 8 May.
The other fire took place on 11 May at the front door of a house converted into flats in Islington.
A forensics officer outside the house in Kentish Town. Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said: “At this stage, the alleged offending is unexplained.”
The court heard Carpiuc gave a no comment interview to police.
Defending, Jay Nutkins said his client has lived in the UK for nine years and is currently waiting for his degree results having studied business at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent.
He denies being present at the scene of any of the fires, the court was told.
Carpiuc, who was supported by his father in court, was said to work in construction.
He will next appear at the Old Bailey on 6 June.
Lavrynovych, a Ukrainian national from Sydenham in southeast London, has already been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life in connection with the fires.
He denied the charges in a police interview.
Lavrynovych appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last Friday and was remanded in custody until a further hearing at the Old Bailey also scheduled for 6 June.
A third man, aged 34, was arrested in Chelsea in southwest London on Monday on suspicion of arson.
He remains in custody, the Metropolitan Police said.
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