No migrant deportation flight to Rwanda before general election, says UK premier

The British prime minister admitted Thursday that no Rwanda flights, deporting asylum seekers, will take off before the general election on July 4.

Rishi Sunak said the flights will go if he is re-elected as the prime minister in the upcoming general election set for July 4.

"If you think stopping the boats is important, and you think like I do that you need a deterrent to do that ... then I'm the only one that's going to deliver that," he told BBC.

Also speaking to LBC radio station, the premier reiterated that no flights will take off before the election, adding: "The preparation work has already gone on."

Labour's Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the premier's comments proved that the deportation plan had "been a con from start to finish."

"With all the hundreds of millions they have spent, it would be extraordinary if 'symbolic flights' didn't take off in early July, as the Tories planned," she noted.

The Rwanda plan has already cost the UK £240 million ($305 million) and the total cost is expected to be at least £370 million ($470 million) over five years, according to official data.

Migration policy and especially the government's controversial Rwanda plan will be a key issue between the ruling Conservative Party and the main opposition Labour Party during the election campaign for six weeks until July 4.

After becoming law in late April, the long-debated legislation seeking to send asylum seekers to Rwanda paves the way for the deportation of thousands of asylum seekers in a matter of weeks.

In January last year, Sunak said tackling small boat crossings by irregular migrants across the English Channel was among the five priorities of his government as more than 45,000 migrants arrived in the UK that way in 2022.