New UK PM scraps controversial plan to deport Rwandan asylum seekers
As his first official act since becoming England’s new prime minister, Kier Starmer said he’ll be honoring a campaign pledge to end a controversial Conservative proposal to deport illegal immigrants back to Rwanda.
Sir Keir Starmer spoke to the press Saturday and said what he called “the Rwanda scheme” was “dead and buried.”
Britain’s Conservative government pitched the plan after migrants and asylum seekers started arriving in the U.K. from France, using small boats.
The policy was conceived to deter immigrants from entering the U.K. illegally.
“It’s never acted as a deterrent,” Starmer said. “Almost the opposite.”
Starmer was expected to make the announcement of one of the Labour’s key campaign promises following his recent landslide victory at the polls.
The plan has cost Britain hundreds of millions of dollars, despite never being formally enacted.
King Charles III had previously called the scheme “appalling.”
Saturday’s briefing following Starmer’s first Cabinet meeting.
He told reporters it was the honor of a lifetime to meet with King Charles III, and be asked to form a government as prime minister.
“We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” he said.
Starmer also said he will be visiting Scotland on Sunday, where he will meet with the nation’s First Minister John Swinney. He’ll then head to Northern Ireland and to Wales, which along with England make up the UK.
Starmer said the trip is designed to establish a way of working across the United Kingdom while recognizing the contributions of all four nations.
His administration faces a heap of problems, including fixing a stumbling economy and a broken health care system.