Rishi Sunak refuses to give a hard date for meeting his ‘stop the boats’ pledge on Channel migrants as he tells top MPs he is ‘confident’ Rwanda deportation flights will take place amid reports airlines are refusing to take part

Rishi Sunak today insisted Rwanda deportation flights would take off despite claims airlines are refusing to help – but refused to commit to a firm date to stop migrant boats crossing the Channel. 

The Prime Minister faced a grilling over his turbulent and troublesome immigration plans by senior MPs on the Liaison Committee this afternoon. 

But his grilling on immigration was highlighted more by what he did not say than what he did.

He told the gathering of select committee chairmen and women there there was no ‘firm date’ set for him to meet his pledge to ‘stop the boats’.

In response to a question from Home Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson he said: ‘The first thing to say is we have made progress and that is that the numbers this year are down by a third, which is considerable progress.’

He added: ‘There isn’t a firm date on this because I’ve always been clear from the beginning. We will keep going until we do.’

He also declined to provide further details on how much the Government expected to pay Rwanda in total under the asylum deal that has already cost £290million before any flights have taken off.

And he refuses to confirm of deny weekend reports that airlines unwilling to undertake charter flights to east Africa over fears of a backlash from regular customers, citing ‘commercial conversations’.

The Prime Minister faced a grilling over his turbulent and troublesome immigration plans by senior MPs on the Liaison Committee this afternoon.

Asked by Home Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson about the cost of the scheme, he said: ‘We disclose these things on an annual basis.’

Challenged by Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier on the ‘secrecy’ surrounding the costs, Mr Sunak said: ‘It wouldn’t be right to talk about these things if we’re having private conversations with other countries about potential alternatives to add to our Rwanda policy.’

Right-wing Tories have urged Rishi Sunak to fight the next general election on leaving an international human rights agreement if the Rwanda plan is blocked.

Danny Kruger, co-chairman of the New Conservatives group, said the party would not win the election without committing to quitting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Together with other Right-wing MPs, he abstained in last week’s crunch vote on Mr Sunak’s Rwanda plan, saying the draft legislation was ‘unsatisfactory’.

Mr Kruger told the Inside Whitehall podcast: ‘I don’t think we will ever get back into power, if we go out of power. And frankly, I think we’re going to struggle at the next election without this [leaving the ECHR] as well.’ 

A host of Conservative MPs have long called for Britain to leave the ECHR. The convention established the European Court of Human Rights, which stopped flights carrying asylum seekers from taking off to Rwanda last year.

Challenged by Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier, the Prime Minister said he was ‘confident’ the Government would be able to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda despite reports that no airlines were willing to provide flights.

Asked whether any airlines had agreed to operate the flights, he said: ‘You wouldn’t expect me to comment on commercial conversations that are necessarily private but I’m highly confident that we can operationalise the (Rwanda) Bill in all its aspects.’

Asked by Dame Diana about the cost of the scheme, he said: ‘We disclose these things on an annual basis.’

He added: ‘It’s absolutely right for what are commercially sensitive negotiations that there is a degree of ability for the Government to negotiate these things and then provide the appropriate level of transparency to Parliament which it is doing on an annual basis.’

Pressed on the ‘secrecy’ surrounding the costs, Mr Sunak said: ‘It may well be that we want to have other conversations with other countries.

‘But again it wouldn’t be right to talk about these things if we’re having private conversations with other countries about potential alternatives to add to our Rwanda policy.’

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