Scrapped Rwanda scheme has cost taxpayer £700m, home secretary says

The Rwanda scheme has cost the British taxpayer £700 million, the new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Commons.

Cooper labelled the now-scrapped scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims processed "the most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen."

The plan by the previous Tory government saw just four volunteers removed voluntarily to the east African nation.

She said that after reviewing spending plans in the department, she discovered there was also an extra £10 billion planned to be spent on the scheme.

In a statement to the Commons on Monday, the home secretary also warned that high levels of small boat crossings in the English Channel were likely to persist over the summer.

“Two and a half years after the previous government launched it, I can report (the Migration and Economic Development Partnership) has already cost the British taxpayer £700 million in order to send just four volunteers,” Cooper said.

Those costs include a £290 million payment to Rwanda, “chartering flights that never took off” and “detaining hundreds of people and then releasing them”.

“I’m extremely concerned that high levels of dangerous crossings we have inherited are likely to persist through the summer,” she warned.

Former Home Secretary James Cleverly, who was in charge of the Rwanda scheme, but now sits on the opposition benches, said Cooper was using "hyperbole and made-up numbers."

Cleverly also accused the Labour government of making "this problem worse and not better".

In her statement to Parliament, Cooper announced the government will override a law stopping some migrants from claiming asylum.

The home secretary told Parliament she will now allow people who arrived in the UK illegally in the last 18 months to claim asylum, after the previous government prevented them from doing so.

Former PM Rishi Sunak brought in the Illegal Migration Act, which stopped people arriving in small boats from being able to claim asylum.

The legislation left many people stuck in hotels and other mass accommodation sites, with those from unsafe countries unable to be legally returned, and the now-scrapped Rwanda scheme never taking off.

Cooper said overriding the previous law was “one simple change” which would “save the taxpayer an estimated seven billion pounds over the next 10 years”.

Starmer announced on his second day as PM that the Rwanda scheme was "dead and buried", with the government instead focusing on taking down smuggling gangs in order to reduce the number of small boat crossings.

The government is also setting up a Border Security Command - a specific law enforcement agency to crack down on smuggling gangs.

Last week the government announced £84 million to invest in Africa and the Middle East to try and deter migrants from coming to the UK.

"To stop illegal migration, we must also tackle it at source", the PM said.

Starmer said the projects which will receive funding include "humanitarian and health support, skills training, held with job opportunities, and access to education".

The Labour government has introduced legislation to boost police powers, allowing them to tackle criminal gangs using counter-terror laws.

The Rwanda plan was beset by legal challenges before it was scrapped, with the Supreme Court ruling the scheme was unlawful in November 2023.

Figures released on Monday showed nearly 1,500 migrants have arrived in the UK after a busy week of crossings in the English Channel.

Some 1,499 people made the journey in 27 boats from July 15 to 21, while the French coastguard confirmed two people died amid rescue operations off the northern French coast.

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