The final authorities spent £50m on Rwanda deportation flights that by no means took off, new figures reveal.
This included the price of securing the flights, escorts to power migrants onto the planes and getting ready and securing the airfields, House Workplace paperwork present.
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Spending on the asylum scheme general reached £715m earlier than it was scrapped by Labour after the final election in July.
Different prices outlined embody £290m paid to Rwanda’s authorities, £95m on detention and reception centres and £280m on IT, staffing and authorized charges.
The figures had been revealed as House Secretary Yvette Cooper gave a press release on migration within the Home of Commons.
She mentioned 84,000 individuals made small boat journeys from the day the Rwanda deal was signed to the day it was axed.
“This so-called deterrent did not result in a single deportation or stop a single boat crossing the Channel,” she mentioned.
“For the British taxpayer, it was a grotesque waste of money.”
Initially launched by Boris Johnson in April 2022, the Rwanda plan was designed to deport migrants who had come to the UK after crossing the English Channel in a small boat to the landlocked east African nation.
Its goal was to discourage additional crossings in small boats, however its opponents claimed there was a scarcity of proof it could have this impact.
By the point of the final election, and two prime ministers later, the scheme was not operational after going through a number of authorized challenges.
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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer scrapped it nearly instantly upon taking workplace, saying the cash can be diverted into a brand new Border Safety Command aimed toward smashing prison people-smuggling gangs.
Greater than 20,000 individuals have crossed the Channel in small boats since his election win, figures revealed on Sunday present.
The entire for the 12 months is now 33,684, with extra crossings for the reason that 5 months Labour have been in energy than the primary six months of 2024 when the Conservatives had been in authorities.
Nonetheless, Labour sources mentioned the 13,574 crossings from January to July had been “unprecedented” for that point of 12 months and had been a 19% improve on the identical interval in 2023, 5% increased than 2022 and greater than double 2021.
They added that climate performed a “significant part” within the excessive quantity over the summer time.
In her Commons assertion, Ms Cooper pledged to “restore order” to the migration system, saying a latest “landmark deal” struck with Iraq will assist stem the variety of unlawful migrants coming to the UK.
Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch has mentioned an “effective deterrent for illegal migration” – such because the Rwanda plan – are among the many concepts her occasion are contemplating as they set out a “new approach” on migration.
