Rishi Sunak and Piers Morgan have entered into a bizarre wager over deportation flights to Rwanda – with the loser agreeing to pay a refugee charity £1,000.
The prime minister spoke to the TalkTV host a year after they first met up, admitting that at least one of his five pledges – to reduce NHS waiting lists – has fallen by the wayside.
But he remained adamant that the Tory’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will still see flights take off before the next general election, which is expected to be held in the autumn.
During the latest interview, Morgan said: “I’ll bet you £1,000 to a refugee charity you don’t get anybody on those planes before the election. Will you take that bet?”
Mr Sunak replied: “I want to get the people on the planes. Of course I want to get the people on the planes.”
The pair then shook hands on the bet over the Rwanda plan.
New figures show the number of migrants crossing the Channel is up 13 per cent compared with this time last year.
Some 1,335 people arrived in the UK after making the journey from France in January, according to provisional Home Office data.
This is compared with the official monthly total of 1,180 recorded in January 2023, analysis of the figures by the PA news agency shows.
The total for January 2024 is just slightly lower than the number of arrivals in the first month of 2022 (1,339), figures show.
That was the highest January total since records began in 2018 and marked the start of a year when a record 45,774 people crossed the Channel.
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