There will be a sigh of relief in No 10 with the passing of the Rwanda bill, as well as a degree of frustration. Having to steward another migration bill through parliament was not part of the government’s plan.
With the Rwanda bill passing on to the statute book, overriding the supreme court judgment that Rwanda is not a safe country to which to send people seeking sanctuary, the government now hopes it can finally get on with locking up and then removing those seeking safety on our shores. The prime minister told a hastily arranged press conference on Monday morning that the first flight would not take off for “10 or 12 weeks” (having previously said it would be in spring). Officials are privately describing it as a “proof of concept” flight – this means focusing on having an initial flight to test how legally watertight the new laws are.
