Rwanda invoice: James Cleverly spent £165k on private jet to sign Rishi Sunak’s deportation deal

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Home secretary James Cleverly spent £165,561 chartering a private jet for a one-day spherical journey to Rwanda to sign Rishi Sunak’s deportation deal.

The revelations come simply days after the Institute for Public Policy Research estimated that the true price of Rishi Sunak’s plan to take away asylum seekers might attain up to £3.9bn over 5 years, equating to a staggering £230,000 per particular person.

A disclosure by the Home Office revealed that Mr Cleverly travelled to Kigali again in December 2023 with officers and a TV crew in a private jet at a price of over £160,000 to the taxpayer.

The house secretary signed the brand new legally binding treaty alongside Rwanda’s international affairs minister to create a brand new enchantment physique made up of judges with asylum experience from a variety of nations.

Mr Cleverly was the third house secretary to make his method to Rwanda to sign a returns settlement, following his predecessors Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.

A spokesperson for the Rwandan authorities on the time mentioned the nation had a “proven record” of providing a house to refugees, and the brand new treaty would “re-emphasise, in a binding manner, already existing commitments” on asylum seeker safety.

The Home Office has already recognized 150 migrants for the primary two deportation flights.

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda invoice has suffered a collection of setbacks and delays after a narrowly prevented revolt on the invoice earlier within the 12 months.

Peers have additionally inflicted defeats on Rishi Sunak’s flagship small boats invoice, voting on Wednesday night time that the federal government ought to have “due regard” for worldwide regulation, and that the UK’s treaty with Rwanda must be absolutely carried out earlier than flights begin.

MPs overturned all 10 of the earlier Lords amendments to the proposed laws, together with an try by friends to forestall age-disputed youngsters from being despatched to Rwanda.

On its return to the House of Lords, friends defeated the federal government on all seven votes, together with passing an modification that will exempt Afghan heroes who supported British troops from deportation to Rwanda.

Labour’s Vernon Coaker advised friends that the repute of the nation was at stake, stressing that it “can’t be right” that the elemental invoice exempts ministers from following worldwide regulation.

The invoice is now in a state of parliamentary “ping pong” as it’s set to return as soon as once more to the commons after Easter recess.

A Home Office spokesperson mentioned: “Stopping the boats is one of our top priorities. The cost of the asylum system could reach up to £11 billion per year by 2026, and we make no apologies for pursuing bold solutions like our partnership with Rwanda to stop the boats and save lives.

“All government spend goes through thorough due diligence to ensure best value for money.”

Labour’s shadow minister for immigration Stephen Kinnock deemed the price of the flight “insulting”: “Having clearly decided that committing £600 million of taxpayers’ money to the Rwandan Government for just 300 refugees wasn’t insulting enough, the Home Secretary decided to blow £165,000 on a flight to sign off on the hare-brained scheme. This Government’s enthusiasm for wasting taxpayers’ money knows no bounds.

He added: “Labour would redirect the money put aside for Rwanda right into a cross-border police unit and safety partnership to smash the prison smuggler gangs at supply, and introduce a brand new Returns unit to shortly take away these with no proper to be right here.”