A Labor victory in the July 4 elections could thwart the government’s controversial scheme to send asylum seekers to the African country.
No deportation flights to Rwanda will take place before the snap elections on July 4, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, meaning a Labor Party victory could prevent the Conservative Party’s controversial scheme from going off track.
Sunak made the announcement on Thursday, during the first full day of campaigning. The Labor Party currently maintains a 20-point lead in opinion polls and has promised to abandon the deportation plan if it comes to power.
Speaking at a campaign event on Thursday, Sunak called politics central to the political race. In April, he had promised flights would take off within 10 to 12 weeks. Mass arrests of potential deportees began earlier this month.
“We started detaining people… the flights are booked for July, the airfields are on standby, the escorts are ready, the social workers are working on everything, so all this is happening, and if I am re-elected as your prime minister , these flights will go to Rwanda,” Sunak said.
The deportation plan has been a flagship policy for Sunak since taking office in October 2022. He continued to defend it even after the UK High Court in November ruled the plan illegal, claiming that Rwanda it could not be considered a safe third country.
In response, Sunak signed a new treaty with the East African country and passed new legislation in June to circumvent the ruling. However, further legal challenges remain possible.
For his part, Labor leader Keir Starmer promised earlier this month to scrap the plan, which has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds, “immediately” upon taking office.
But with the number of asylum seekers making the dangerous journey across the English Channel rising to record numbers by now in 2024, Starmer also introduced a separate plan to launch a new border enforcement unit and use powers to combat “terrorism ” to crack down on human smuggling.
Surprise announcement
Immigration is expected to be a prominent issue in election campaigns, with the economy and record National Health Service waiting times also set to rise.
The decision to call the vote months earlier than expected came as a shock to some members of Sunak’s party, with 14 years of sometimes chaotic Conservative government leaving many in the country disillusioned.
The Conservatives have trailed Labor in opinion polls since Sunak replaced former prime minister Liz Truss following her resignation after just 44 days in office. Some political observers have questioned the timing of Sunak’s announcement, noting that there is little reason for optimism about climate change.
Speaking at an event in Gillingham, southeast England, on Thursday, Starmer portrayed himself as the candidate who can renew, rebuild and reinvigorate the United Kingdom. He pointed to the disparity in cities like London, which are home to large corporations like Google.
Referring to children living in city centers, he said: “They can’t imagine making that journey from school to those jobs. It’s a few hundred meters.
Starmer is the country’s former chief prosecutor who ushered the party towards the center after it moved further to the left under his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
Victory would make Starmer the UK’s sixth prime minister in eight years. The highest turnover rate since the 1830s has become emblematic of a period of intense political turmoil with no end in sight.
The Rwandan deportation plan is not the only Sunak signature policy in doubt. A bill that would gradually raise the minimum age to buy cigarettes for anyone born after 2009 – effectively making it increasingly difficult for the younger generation to smoke – is also unlikely to be passed before Parliament is dissolved on Friday. before the elections.
Separately on Thursday, Nigel Farage, the former face of the Brexit campaign, said he would not stand for election for the six-year-old Reform UK party.
The move could diminish the appeal of the right-wing party, which has threatened to divert support from the Conservatives’ electoral base.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
