Rishi Sunak doubted Rwanda scheme would stop small boat crossings when Chancellor

Sky News has seen papers which show that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had doubts the government’s Rwanda scheme would help stop small boat crossings back when he was chancellor. In March 2022, while Boris Johnson was still prime minister, the Downing Street papers seem to paint a picture of a split between the then-prime minister and the then-chancellor about the viability of the scheme. “Chancellor wants to pursue smaller volumes initially, 500 instead of 1.5k this year, and 3k instead of 5k, in years two or three,” the documents seen by Sky News said. In a separate bit, it says, “Chancellor is refusing to fund any non-detained accommodation (e.g. Greek style reception centres) because hotels are cheaper.” Mr Sunak is preparing to bring back legislation that he says will solve some of the concerns the Supreme Court had about the Rwanda policy and allow flights to get off the ground. There are a section of MPs within the Conservative Party that are concerned that the legislation doesn’t go far enough, and they want to see the prime minister disregard some other parts of international law.