Rishi Sunak says migrants going to Ireland shows Rwanda scheme is working as a deterrent
Migrants travelling to Ireland after arriving in the UK on small boats is a sign the Rwanda scheme is already working as a deterrent, Rishi Sunak has said.
Sky News’s Trevor Phillips asked the prime minister if migrants finding their way to Ireland was a sign the UK was “exporting the problem”.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister Micheal Martin said on Friday the threat of being deported to Rwanda had caused an influx of migrants to cross the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic.
In his interview – which will air in full on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show tomorrow at 8.30am – Mr Sunak was asked about the comments, saying they illustrated “the deterrent is… already having an impact”.
“People are worried about coming here and that demonstrates exactly what I’m saying,” he said. “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay there, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”
Downing Street on Friday rebuffed claims the Rwanda plan was already influencing movements into Ireland, saying it was too early to jump to conclusions on its impact.
Mr Sunak said the comments also illustrate “that illegal migration is a global challenge”.
“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe will follow where the UK has led,” he said.
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Mr Martin told The Daily Telegraph that the policy was already affecting Ireland, as people were “fearful” of staying in the UK.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister said: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”
Mr Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister, said asylum seekers were looking “to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda”.
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Danger for Sunak if new Act does not stop boats
On the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which finally became law this week after so-called “ping pong” between the Commons and the House of Lords, Mr Sunak said a deterrent was the only way to stop the boats.
“We did just have an important moment this week that in spite of all the opposition from the Labour Party we have passed the Rwanda bill through Parliament in the face of enormous opposition,” he told Sir Trevor.
“That’s important because the only way to fully solve this problem is to have a deterrent, so that if people come to a country illegally, they’re not able to stay, and we can return them.”
Refugee groups in Ireland admit that the threat of being deported to Rwanda is, as the Irish government claims, driving migrants across the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic.
Nick Henderson of the Irish Refugee Council told Sky News: “As long as there is a Rwanda policy and the Illegal Migration Act which states that somebody can’t lodge an application for asylum in the UK and have it considered if they enter in an irregular way, it’s going to have knock-on effects on Ireland, that’s plain to see.”
Now that the Rwanda legislation has finally become law, Tory MPs believe the PM can no longer blame his political opponents in parliament, in the Commons and the Lords, if it fails to stop the boats.
The danger for Mr Sunak, even his supporters concede, is that even if planes do take off for Rwanda this summer and some migrants head for Ireland, it may not stop the tide of more illegal migrants crossing the channel.
His comments came after Ireland’s justice minister told a committee of the Irish Parliament she estimates more than 80% of migrants in the Republic had crossed from Northern Ireland.
The UK’s prime minister told Trevor Phillips his focus “is on the United Kingdom and securing our border”.
Read more:
What impact will bill have on immigration?
Sunak staking premiership on Rwanda flights plan
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The Safety of Rwanda Bill became an Act on Thursday, with Number 10 announcing the same day that the first deportation plane had been booked.
After a number of setbacks and delays, the bill passed in parliament earlier this week and then received royal assent, with Home Secretary James Cleverly hailing the approval as a “landmark moment in our plan to stop the boats”.
Anticipating the bill’s passage, the prime minister earlier this week promised the first flights would take off in 10 to 12 weeks – “come what may”.
Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips at 8.30am
The chief secretary to the Treasury has called the Sky News-Chat GPT spending review projection “pretty good” and scored it 70%.
Darren Jones compared the real spending review, delivered by Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, and the Sky News AI (artificial intelligence) projection last week.
Sky News took the Treasury’s spring statement, past spending reviews, the ‘main estimates’ from the Treasury website, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ projections, and put them into ChatGPT, asking it to calculate the winners and losers in the spending review.
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This was done 10 days ahead of the review – before several departments had agreed their budgets with the Treasury – on the basis of projections based on those public documents. It also comes amid a big debate kicked off by Sky News about the level of error of AI.
The Sky News-AI projection correctly put defence and health as the biggest winners, the Foreign Office as the biggest loser, and identified many departments would lose out in real terms overall.
It suggested the education budget would be smaller than it turned out, but correctly highlighted the challenges for departments like the Home Office and environment.
Watch what happened with Sky’s AI-generated spending review
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AI writes the spending review
Reviewing the exercise, the author of the real spending review told Sky News that this pioneering use of AI was “pretty, pretty good”.
He added: “I could be out of a job next time in 2027, which to be honest, it’s not a bad idea given the process I’ve just had to go through.”
The Treasury made a number of accounting changes to so-called “mega projects” which AI could not have anticipated, and changed some of the numbers.
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Sky’s economics editor Ed Conway takes a look at the key takeaways from chancellor Rachel Reeves’ spending review.
Asked to give it a score, Mr Jones replied: “I’m going to give it 70%.”
The spending review includes AI as a tool to save money in various government processes.
Asked if 70% accuracy is good enough for government, he replied: “Well we’re not using your AI. We’ve got our own AI, which is called HMT GPT, and it helps us pull together all the information across government to be able to make better, evidence-informed decisions.”
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