Rishi Sunak had significant doubts about the government’s scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda when he was chancellor, it has been reported.
The BBC said it had seen documents suggesting the now prime minister believed hotels were “cheaper” than reception centres and that he was concerned about the costs of the Rwanda scheme.
The No 10 papers are from March 2022, one month before the plan was announced by Boris Johnson, it was reported.
Sunak has faced discontent from Tory MPs over the plans. After the report emerged, Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, told Sky News he was prepared to put forward changes to strengthen the safety of the Rwanda bill.
The BBC said the documents revealed the chancellor also wanted “to pursue smaller volumes initially”, with 500 people to be flown to Rwanda in the first year of the scheme, instead of the proposed 1,500.
It said he then proposed “3,000 instead of 5,000 in years two and three”. He was described as believing the “deterrent won’t work”.
Sunak has since come under pressure to defend his new Rwanda asylum law as he battles to hold together a fractured Conservative party and avoid challenges to his premiership.
The documents, which said No 10 suggested Sunak needed to “consider his popularity with the base” over the Rwanda plan, added that he was reluctant to fund “Greek-style reception centres” at a cost of £3.5m a day to house migrants, and preferred hotels.
A source close to Sunak told the BBC: “The prime minister was always fully behind the principle of the scheme as a deterrent.
“As chancellor it was his job to make sure it delivered and taxpayers’ money was appropriately spent.”
It has emerged that the cost of the scheme has more than doubled to £290m. The Home Office has admitted that, on top of the initial £140m payment to Rwanda, it had handed over a further £100m, and an extra £50m is to follow.
A government source said: “As chancellor, Rishi funded the Rwanda scheme and put it at the heart of his 10-point plan the month after becoming PM.
“Now he is passing the Rwanda bill, following the supreme court judgment, to get flights off the ground. He is the first prime minister ever to oversee a reduction in small boat crossings, which were down by 36% last year.”
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC: “The prime minister knew the plan was incredibly costly and wouldn’t work, and resisted it while he was chancellor.
“But he is so weak he has now agreed to write cheques to Rwanda for £400m without sending a single person there in a desperate attempt to shore up his leadership.”
Sunak has pledged to continue with the plan for migrant flights to Rwanda, despite a ruling by the UK supreme court that it was unlawful.
He said on Tuesday: “I am focused on delivering on my commitment to stop the boats and get flights off the ground to Rwanda.”
News about the documents will concern some Tory MPs. Jenrick, who quit last month, arguing that the bill does not go far enough, told Sky News: “If we say we are going to do whatever it takes [to stop the boats], we have to do whatever it takes and that means strengthening that bill.
“I hope that he [Sunak] will strengthen the bill that is coming through parliament. And I have been very clear that if he doesn’t do that, then I will lay amendments to the bill next week to make sure that it is the piece of legislation necessary, that it is sufficiently robust to do the job that the British public expect.”
Sunak has previously been accused by Keir Starmer of giving Rwanda “hundreds of millions of pounds for nothing in return” after the signing of a deportation treaty. Starmer said the Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, had seen the prime minister coming “a mile off”.
On Saturday night, Labour called on Sunak to be “honest with the public” by publishing the papers seen by the BBC that reportedly indicate he was unsure about the Rwanda scheme.
Labour officials said the PM should “come clean about his reservations about the Rwanda scheme as chancellor”.
Cooper said Sunak had become the latest senior Conservative to indicate they “don’t believe the government’s plans will work”.
Cooper has previously suggested that the home secretary, James Cleverly, before being moved to the Home Office had privately described the Rwanda policy as “batshit” – a term he said he did not remember using.
Labour said it would push for ministers to reveal the full details of the cost of the east African deportation scheme during an opposition day debate in the Commons on Tuesday.
Cooper said: “The more we hear about the government’s Rwanda scheme, the more obvious it becomes that this is an extortionate con that won’t fix the Tory chaos in our immigration system.
“The home secretary, the former immigration minister and now the prime minister clearly don’t believe the government’s plans will work.
“It is time the Tory government was honest with the public, and publishes both the papers outlining Rishi Sunak’s concerns and the full details of the cost of the scheme.
“In a few weeks’ time the prime minister will ask his divided and sceptical backbench MPs to vote for a Rwanda scheme he clearly doesn’t believe in and which he refuses to set out the costs for.
“They should stop wasting time on this costly charade and adopt Labour’s plan to go after the criminal smuggling gangs, negotiating new security arrangements with Europe to better protect our borders and set up a new returns unit to ensure those with no right to be in the UK are swiftly removed.”
PA Media contributed to this report
