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Sunak refuses to honour Rwanda bet… because one asylum seeker went there voluntarily

Multi-millionaire Rishi Sunak is refusing to honour a bet with Piers Morgan due to a technicality.

The prime minister was believed to have lost a £1,000 charity bet with the TalkTV star after admitting there will be no flights to East Africa before the election.

He made the admission as he toured the broadcast studios ahead of a two-day trip across the UK to mark the start of the campaign.

Mr Sunak called the election on Wednesday night in a rain-soaked press statement in Downing Street, with the date set for July 4.

He and his ministers have repeatedly marked early July for when the first one-way deportation flight for migrants to east African nation Rwanda will take place.

Speaking to LBC, the Prime Minister conceded these will now take off “after the election”, which presumably meant he lost this wager.

But reports in The Telegraph suggest he is refusing to honour it because one asylum seeker has gone to Rwanda voluntarily.

Earlier this month it was revealed that an unnamed man became the first person to have voluntarily moved to Rwanda after being offered up to £3,000 financial aid and sent on a commercial flight.

The voluntary return scheme was widened to include Rwanda as a destination earlier this year.

It is separate from the Conservative Government’s plan to deport to the central African country those arriving via small boats in the English Channel.

Related: ‘Patriot’ Farage chooses America over Britain

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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