James Manning/PA
Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has committed to resurrecting the Rwanda plan if he gets voted in to lead the party.
The former immigration minister told LBC he will double down on Boris Johnson’s plan to try and stop people making the dangerous crossing of the Channel in small boats.
Labour ditched the disastrous policy after it was revealed that the previous administration had set aside £10 billion in a move that Yvette Cooper branded the “most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen”.
But Jenrick has accused her of “making this figure up”, saying:
“I want a stronger version of the Rwanda plan.
“That’s what I proposed at the turn of the year, one which would enable us to detain people upon arrival, and then remove them with within hours or days rather than weeks and months. I believe that’s possible.”
Jenrick quit under Rishi Sunak’s tenure, saying his plan for Rwanda wouldn’t work and had too many loopholes because it did not go far enough.
Ministers have sent no one to the land-locked nation except a handful of volunteers, despite spending millions on it.
Jenrick defended the cost, and said he didn’t recognise figures of £10 billion.
He said: “I just don’t know what that number relates to. But what I do know is that they are banding around numbers both on the public finances and on illegal migration to justify political choices. They are making this figure up.
“The political choice that Yvette Cooper has made, is because she is too squeamish to have an effective deterrent. She’s abandoned the Rwanda scheme before she has come up with any credible alternative.”
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