British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech outside 10 Downing Street, following the election results, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024.
Claudia Greco | Reuters
Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday he would scrap a controversial plan to transfer thousands of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda in his first major policy announcement since his landslide election victory.
The previous Conservative government first announced the plan in 2022 to send migrants who arrived in Britain without permission back to the East African country, saying it would put an end to asylum seekers arriving on small boats.
But no one has been sent to Rwanda under the plan because of years of legal challenges.
In his first press conference since becoming prime minister, Starmer said the Rwanda policy would be scrapped because only about 1% of asylum seekers would be removed, and so it would fail to act as a deterrent.
“The Rwanda plot was over before it began. It was never a deterrent. I am not prepared to continue with gimmicks that do not work as a deterrent,” Starmer said.
Starmer won one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern British history on Friday, making him the most powerful British leader since former Prime Minister Tony Blair, but he faces a number of challenges, including improving struggling public services and reviving a weak economy.
At the Downing Street press conference, Starmer answered about a dozen questions and was repeatedly asked how and when he would start to deliver on his promises to fix the nation's problems, but he gave few details about what he planned.
Asked if he was prepared to make tough decisions and raise taxes if necessary, Starmer said his government would identify problems and act in areas such as tackling the overburdened prison system and reducing long waiting times to use the state-run health service.
“We're going to have to make tough decisions early on, and we will. We're going to do that with complete honesty. But this is not a prelude to saying there are some tax decisions that we haven't talked about before,” he said.
Starmer said he would set up and chair different “missions councils” to focus on so-called priority areas such as the health service and economic growth.
Election issue
The question of how to stop asylum seekers crossing from France was one of the main themes of the six-week election campaign.
While supporters say the move would break the human traffickers' model, critics claim Rwanda's policy is immoral and will never work.
Last November, the UK Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful, saying Rwanda could not be considered a safe third country, prompting ministers to sign a new treaty with the East African nation and pass new legislation to overturn the decision.
The legality of this move has been challenged in the courts by charities and unions.
The British government has already given the Rwandan government hundreds of millions of pounds to create accommodation and hire additional officials to process asylum claims, money it cannot get back.
Starmer said his government would set up a Border Security Command, which would bring together police, domestic intelligence and prosecutors to work with international agencies to stop people smuggling.
Sonia Skates, chief executive of Freedom from Torture, one of several organisations and charities that have campaigned to stop the Rwanda plan, welcomed Starmer's announcement on Saturday.
“We commend Keir Starmer for acting immediately to close the door on this shameful scheme that played politics at the expense of the lives of people who were tortured and persecuted,” she said.
