Sunak admits Rwanda flights will not take off before election – and denies vote called due to expected inflation rise
Rishi Sunak has admitted Rwanda flights will not take off before the general election – as he denied calling a summer vote because inflation is expected to rise.
The prime minister has said for the past few months the first flights removing asylum seekers to the African nation will happen in July.
But after calling a general election for 4 July, whether the flights will take off at all has been called into question.
“The first flights will go in July,” he told the BBC.
He then added: “If I’m re-elected as prime minister on July 5, these flights will go, we will get our Rwanda scheme up and running.”
When pressed on the timing of flights, Mr Sunak told LBC: “No, after the election. The preparation work has already gone on.”
Follow live updates after general election called
With Labour on a 20-point lead in the polls, the Conservatives’ flagship illegal migration scheme may, quite literally, never get off the ground.
‘There’ll be no flights’
Earlier this month, Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News: “There’ll be no flights. I want to scrap the scheme so that means the flights won’t be going.
“There’ll be no flights scheduled or taking off after the general election, if Labour wins that general election.”
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Sunak launches election campaign
Many were surprised by the PM calling a summer election on Monday, with some MPs querying whether it was because inflation is expected to rise again and there could also be an increase in small boat arrivals over the summer.
“No, that’s not the real reason,” Mr Sunak told the BBC.
“And when it comes to the economy, of course, I know there’s more work to do. I know that people are only just starting to feel the benefits of the changes that we’ve brought.
“And for some people when they look at their bank balance at the end of every month it will still be difficult, but we have undeniably made progress and stability has returned.”
Inflation fell to 2.3% – the lowest rate in nearly three years – hours before Mr Sunak announced the election.
Read more:
Why Sunak may have decided to call election now
A six-week race for the keys to Number 10
Sir Keir Starmer has said Rwanda flights will not take off if Labour win. Pic: PA
Both Mr Starmer and Sir Keir kicked off their election campaigns on Thursday morning, just hours after the PM announced the date people will go to the polls the evening before.
Election campaigns under way
The PM is embarking on a two-day trip of all four of the UK’s nations, while Sir Keir was heading to southeast England to tackle the traditional Tory battlegrounds there.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice was getting ready for a news conference, where the party’s co-founder Nigel Farage could announce a return to frontline politics.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is expected to visit a target seat to launch his campaign, which is expected to focus on targeting Conservative-held seats.
In parliament, there is just today and Friday to get important legislation rushed through the Commons before parliament is prorogued – the end of the session – on Friday.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill will be one of the main pieces of legislation as it includes measures to establish a compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal announced this week.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Related: Bitcoin at 16: From experiment to trillion-dollar asset
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
Magazine: 10 crypto theories that missed as badly as ‘Peter Todd is Satoshi’
The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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