One of Keir Starmer’s first acts as prime minister was to kill off the previous government’s flagship asylum policy. The Rwanda plan was doomed from the start, dogged by legal and political difficulties and culminating in a £320 million bill to the taxpayer with no planes actually taking off.
It was also emblematic of the divisive rhetoric that has accompanied the last 14 years of chaotic and cruel immigration policy. This is most clear in the hostile environment, policies from 2014 and 2016 that focused on demonisation, exclusion and restriction of migrants. The aim was to make life as intolerable as possible for people with no right to be in the UK.
