A summary of today's developments
- The first flight taking asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda was cancelled minutes before takeoff after the European Court of Human Rights issued last minute injunctions to stop the move.
- A total of seven individuals were believed to have been due to board the flight before the series of interventions were made. The plane, which stood ready on a Ministry of Defence runway at Boscombe Down in Amesbury, Wiltshire, was scheduled to takeoff at 9:30pm before being delayed to 10:30pm and then being cancelled.
- PA understands that the appeals were considered by an out of hours judge on papers, overruling the UK rulings. It is believed that at the present time there is not a route for the Home Office to appeal against the decision. Home secretary Priti Patel said she was disappointed the flight to Rwanda was not able to leave but would not be “deterred from doing the right thing”.
- Downing Street has defended the appointment of David Buttress as the government’s new cost of living tsar despite Buttress saying in January that Boris Johnson should resign. Buttress has also criticised Johnson and the Tories more widely, as well as arguing that the Rwanda deportation policy lacks common decency.
- Moves to sell off Channel 4 are not conservative but “destructive”, ministers have heard. Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley told the Commons: “We have more than three different types of public service broadcasters, government is proposing to abolish one of them. That is not conservative, that is destructive.” Conservative chair of the digital, media, culture and sport committee Julian Knight said the value of selling off the channel would be “marginal” to the Treasury, servicing the national debt for “72 hours”.
- Plaid Cymru said Wales and the rest of the UK should rejoin the EU single market due to the cost of living crisis.
The cancelled flight to Rwanda, which cost an estimated £500,000, had already been paid for from the public purse, a government source confirmed.
The UK government has also paid £120 million as a down payment on the Rwanda deal.
The government has declined to say how much it has paid in legal costs and has not said how much it expects to pay for future flights, accommodation and living costs for everyone sent to Rwanda.
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