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.
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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.”
UK
Use of drones to fly weapons into prisons has become a ‘threat to national security’, watchdog warns
The use of drones to fly drugs and weapons into UK prisons needs to be tackled “urgently” because it has become a threat to “national security”, the chief inspector of prisons has said.
Charlie Taylor added that police and the prison service had in effect “ceded the airspace” around HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin to organised crime gangs who are using the gadgets to deliver contraband to inmates.
The two high security prisons hold some of the most dangerous men in the country, including terrorists and organised crime bosses.
Mr Taylor’s warning comes after inspections of HMP Manchester, based in the city centre, and HMP Long Lartin, in Evesham, Worcestershire, found both prisons had “thriving illicit economies” of drugs, mobile phones and weapons.
Inspectors also found that basic security measures such as protective netting and CCTV had fallen into disrepair.
Some inmates at HMP Manchester, a category B jail which holds a small number of category A prisoners, had burned holes in windows so that they could receive regular deliveries by drone, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons watchdog said as it published the findings of the inspections.
It added that many of the drones had “increasingly large payloads” which “had the potential to lead to serious disruption and even escape”.
Mr Taylor said: “It is highly alarming that the police and prison service have, in effect ceded the airspace above two high-security prisons to organised crime gangs which are able to deliver contraband to jails holding extremely dangerous prisoners including some who have been designated as high-risk category A.
“The safety of staff, prisoners and ultimately that of the public, is seriously compromised by the failure to tackle what has become a threat to national security.
“The prison service, the police and other security services must urgently confront organised gang activity and reduce the supply of drugs and other illicit items which so clearly undermine every aspect of prison life.”
The latest warning comes months after an inmate at high-security HMP Garth in Lancashire told inspectors the prison was like an “airport” because there were so many drones flying in drugs.
Inspectors found prisoners had been using the elements from their kettles to burn holes in their “inadequately protected” Perspex windows to allow the “entry of drones laden with contraband”.
Prisoners burned holes in their windows at HMP Garth. Pic: HM Inspectorate of Prisons
The inspections at HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin, which took place across September and October 2024, also revealed other serious concerns around safety and security at both sites.
Mr Taylor felt the situation was so bad at HMP Manchester that he issued an urgent notification for improvement to the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
At Manchester, 39% of prisoners tested positive in mandatory drug tests, while at Long Lartin, 50% of those who responded to the watchdog’s survey said it was easy to get drugs and alcohol.
Violence and self-harm at both prisons was also found to have increased, which the watchdog said was partly driven by drugs and the accompanying debt prisoners found themselves in.
Meanwhile there had been six “self-inflicted deaths” at Manchester since the watchdog’s last inspection in 2021, with a seventh taking place after the most recent visit.
It is now one of the most violent prisons in the country, with a high number of serious assaults against prisoners and staff.
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Many officers “lacked confidence, were demoralised, and were struggling to manage experienced prisoners who were serving long sentences for serious crimes”, the watchdog said.
Manchester was also found to have a chronic rodent infestation, while there was widespread dirt, damp and litter at both sites.
Prisoners at Manchester were also found to have used torn-up foam from mattresses and pillows to keep out the cold.
Inspectors found 38% of prisoners there were locked up during the working day and poor attendance at education and work was further fuelling the boredom, drug-taking, self-harm and violence.
At Long Lartin, which houses both category A and B prisoners, a continued lack of in-cell toilets for many prisoners led them to use buckets and throw bags of excrement out of the windows, many of which were not cleared up, the watchdog said.
The Ministry of Justice said in a statement: “This government inherited prisons in crisis – overcrowded, with drugs and violence rife.
“We are gripping the situation by investing in prison maintenance and security, working with the police and others to tackle serious organised crime, and building more prison places to lock up dangerous criminals.”
Reform UK has grown in support to within one percentage point of Labour according to a new poll for Sky News by YouGov which suggests Britain has entered a new era of three-way party politics.
Sir Keir Starmer looks set to spend the parliament locked in a fight with two right-wing parties after Labour support dropped sharply in the first YouGov poll since the general election.
The poll shows the Tories have now been pushed into third place – two months after Kemi Badenoch was elected leader.
The data collected over the weekend puts Labour on 26%, Reform UK on 25%, Conservatives on 22%, Liberal Democrats on 14% and Greens on 8%.
This is a huge switch from the general election, when Labour was on 35%, Conservatives on 24%, Reform UK on 15%, Lib Dem on 13% and Greens on 7%.
Politics latest: Chancellor will remain until next election, Downing Street says
This is the first of YouGov’s weekly voting intention polls for Sky News, shared with The Times.
It reflects a drop in satisfaction with the government, a rise in support for Reform UK, and shows how the Labour vote has split in all directions since the election.
Labour has retained 54% of their vote at the general election – 7% have gone to the Lib Dems, 6% to the Green Party, 5% to Reform UK, 4% to the Tories – while 23% of those polled did not say, did not know or would not vote.
Reform UK’s vote has grown since the general election at the expense of all other parties, with 16% of voters who backed the Tories at the ballot last year now saying they’d support Reform.
Read more:
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The judgement on Sir Keir’s first six months in office is damning, however.
Some 10% say the government has been successful while 60% say unsuccessful.
Older voters have turned away from Labour. Just 14% of over 65s would now vote Labour, down from 22% around the time of the election.
However, there are signs the Tory party remains a toxic brand. Reform UK are the least unpopular party, with a net favourability rating of -32, Labour a touch worse on -34 and the Tories down on -45.
YouGov interviewed 2,279 voters in Great Britain on Sunday 12 January and Monday 13 January.
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