Labour government would halt Rwanda deportations from day one, Starmer says

After a speech in which he announced his plans to tackle illegal immigration, Starmer committed to scrapping the Rwanda scheme “absolutely, flights and all”.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, claimed it was “comic” for Labour to scrap the scheme when it was “demonstrably” working – despite no flights departing for Rwanda yet.

He added: “Of course that means we won’t operate the scheme at all … I’m not going to flog a dead horse or waste my time with gimmicks.”

Starmer said he believed Sunak’s government would succeed in sending flights to Rwanda before the election, but that this would only result in a few hundred asylum seekers being deported when thousands had crossed the Channel already this year.

He blamed the government’s “botched Brexit deal” for hampering cooperation with European agencies on border security and illegal migration.

Speaking more broadly, the Labour leader pledged to “turn the page on Westminster’s talk tough, do nothing culture”.