Rishi Sunak: Airfield on standby and planes booked for Rwanda deportations

Published

2 years ago

April 22, 2024

admin

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”.

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.

? Listen above then tap here to follow Politics at Jack at Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts ?

“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.”

Politics

Bitcoin treads water at $90K as whales eat the Ethereum dip: Finance Redefined

Published

11 hours ago

December 5, 2025

admin

Bitcoin treads water at K as whales eat the Ethereum dip: Finance Redefined

Cryptocurrency markets saw another week of consolidation following last week’s long-awaited market recovery.

While Bitcoin (BTC) remained above the key $90,000 psychological level, investor sentiment continued to be dominated by “fear,” with a marginal improvement from 20 to 25 within the week, according to CoinMarketCap’s Fear & Greed index.

In the wider crypto space, the Ether (ETH) treasury trade appears to be unwinding, as the monthly acquisitions by Ethereum digital asset treasuries (DATs) fell 81% in the past three months from August’s peak.

Still, the biggest corporate Ether holder, BitMine Immersion Technologies, continued to amass ETH, while other treasury firms carried on with their fundraising efforts for future acquisitions.

*Fear & Greed index, all-time chart. Source: CoinMarketCap*

Investors are also awaiting the key interest rate decision during the US Federal Reserve’s upcoming meeting on Wednesday to provide more cues about monetary policy leading into 2026.

Markets are pricing in an 87% chance of a 25 basis point interest rate cut, up from 62% a month ago, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

*Interest rate cut probabilities. Source: CMEgroup.com*

Ethereum treasury trade unwinds 80% as handful of whales dominate buys

The Ethereum treasury trade appears to be unwinding as monthly acquisitions continue to decline since the August high, though the largest players continue to scoop up billions of the Ether supply.

Investments from Ethereum DATs fell 81% in the past three months, from 1.97 million Ether in August to 370,000 ETH in November, according to Bitwise, an asset management firm.

“ETH DAT bear continues,” wrote Max Shennon, senior research associate at Bitwise, in a Tuesday X post.

Despite the slowdown, some companies with stronger financial backgrounds continued to accumulate the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency or raise funds for future purchases.

BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate Ether holder, accumulated about 679,000 Ether worth $2.13 billion over the past month, completing 62% of its target to accumulate 5% of the ETH supply, according to data from the Strategicethreserve.

BitMine holds an additional $882 million worth of cash according to the data aggregator, which may signal more incoming Ether accumulation.

*Top corporate Ether holders. Source:* *Strategicethreserve.xyz*

Continue reading

Citadel causes uproar by urging SEC to regulate DeFi tokenized stocks

Market maker Citadel Securities has recommended that the US Securities and Exchange Commission tighten regulations on decentralized finance regarding tokenized stocks, causing backlash from crypto users.

Citadel Securities told the SEC in a letter on Tuesday that DeFi developers, smart-contract coders, and self-custody wallet providers should not be given “broad exemptive relief” for offering trading of tokenized US equities.

It argued that DeFi trading platforms likely fall under the definitions of an “exchange” or “broker-dealer” and should be regulated under securities laws if offering tokenized stocks.

“Granting broad exemptive relief to facilitate the trading of a tokenized share via DeFi protocols would create two separate regulatory regimes for the trading of the same security,” it argued. “This outcome would be the exact opposite of the “technology-neutral” approach taken by the Exchange Act.”

Citadel’s letter, made in response to the SEC looking for feedback on how it should approach regulating tokenized stocks, has drawn considerable backlash from the crypto community and organizations advocating for innovation in the blockchain space.

Continue reading

Arthur Hayes warns Monad could crash 99%, calls it high-risk “VC coin”

Crypto veteran Arthur Hayes has issued a warning over Monad, saying the recently launched layer-1 blockchain could plunge as much as 99% and end up as another failed experiment driven by venture capital hype rather than real adoption.

Speaking on Altcoin Daily, the former BitMEX chief described the project as “another high FDV, low-float VC coin,” arguing that its token structure alone puts retail traders at risk. FDV stands for Fully Diluted Value, which is the market value of a crypto project if all its tokens were already in circulation.

According to Hayes, projects with a large gap between FDV and circulating supply often experience early price spikes, followed by deep selloffs once insider tokens unlock. “It’s going to be another bear chain,” Hayes said, adding that while every new coin gets an initial pump, that does not mean it will develop a lasting use case.

Hayes said most new layer-1 networks ultimately fail, with only a handful likely to retain long-term relevance. He identified Bitcoin, Ether, Solana (SOL) and Zcash (ZEC) as the small group of protocols he expects to survive the next cycle.

Last year, Monad raised $225 million in funding from venture capital firm Paradigm. The layer-1 blockchain went live on Monday, accompanied by an airdrop of its MON token.

*Monad’s MON token up 40% since launch. Source:* *CoinMarketCap*

Continue reading

$25 billion crypto lending market now led by “transparent” players: Galaxy

The crypto lending market has become more transparent than ever, led by the likes of Tether, Nexo and Galaxy, and has just hit an aggregate loan book of nearly $25 billion outstanding in the third quarter.

The size of the crypto lending market has increased by more than 200% since the beginning of 2024, according to Galaxy Research. Its latest quarter puts it at its highest since its peak in Q1 2022.

However, it has yet to return to its peak of $37 billion at that time.

The main difference is the number of new centralized finance lending platforms and much more transparency, said Galaxy’s head of research, Alex Thorn.

Thorn said on Sunday that he was proud of the chart and the transparency of its contributors, adding that it was a “big change from prior market cycles.”

*The crypto lending landscape has seen many new platforms in the past three years. Source: Alex Thorn*

Continue reading

Portal to Bitcoin raises $25 million and launches atomic OTC desk

Bitcoin-native interoperability protocol Portal to Bitcoin has raised $25 million in funding amid the launch of what it describes as an atomic over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk.

According to a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the company raised $25 million in a round led by digital asset lender JTSA Global. The fundraise follows previous investments by Coinbase Ventures, OKX Ventures, Arrington Capital and others.

Alongside the fresh funding, the company rolled out its Atomic OTC desk, promising “instant, trustless cross-chain settlement of large block trades.” The newly deployed service is reminiscent of crosschain atomic swaps offered by THORChain, Chainflip, and more Bitcoin-focused systems such as Liquality and Boltz.

What sets Portal to Bitcoin apart is its focus on the Bitcoin-anchored crosschain OTC market for institutions and whales, along with its tech stack. “Portal provides the infrastructure to make Bitcoin the settlement layer for global asset markets, without bridges, custodians, or wrapped assets,” said Chandra Duggirala, founder and CEO of Portal.

Decentralization — *Portal to Bitcoin team members, from left to right: co-founder and chief technology officer Manoj Duggirala, founder and CEO Chandra Duggirala, and co-founder George Burke. Source: Portal to Bitcoin*

Continue reading

DeFi market overview

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the red.

The Canton (CC) token fell 18%, marking the week’s biggest decline in the top 100, followed by the Starknet (STRK) token, down 16% on the weekly chart.

*Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama*

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.