James Cleverly spends £165,000 on private jet to sign Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deal

Home Secretary James Cleverly spent £165,561 to charter a private jet for a day trip to Rwanda to sign Rishi Sunak’s deportation deal.

The revelations come just days after the Institute for Public Policy Research estimated the true cost of Rishi Sunak’s plan to deport asylum seekers could be as high as £3.9bn over five years, equivalent to a staggering £230,000 per person.

Information disclosed by the Home Office revealed that Mr Cleverley flew to Kigali on a private jet with officials and a television crew in December 2023 at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £160,000.

The Home Secretary, together with Rwanda’s Foreign Minister, signed a new legally binding treaty to establish a new appellate body composed of judges with asylum expertise from several countries.

Mr Cleverley is the third home secretary to travel to Rwanda to sign the return agreement, following his predecessors Priti Patel and Suela Braverman.

A Rwandan government spokesman said at the time that the country had a “proven record” of providing homes to refugees and that the new treaty would “re-emphasize in a binding way” existing commitments to asylum seeker protection.

The Home Office has identified 150 migrants for the first two deportation flights.

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda bill has suffered a series of setbacks and delays after narrowly avoiding opposition earlier this year.

Peers also dealt a blow to Rishi Sunak’s flagship small boats bill, voting on Wednesday night that the government should have “due regard” to international law and that the UK’s treaty with Rwanda should be fully implemented before flights start.

MPs overturned all 10 previous amendments to the proposed legislation in the House of Lords, including an attempt by MPs to stop children over disputed ages being sent to Rwanda.

Returning to the House of Lords, peers defeated the government with all seven votes, including passing an amendment exempting Afghan heroes who supported British forces from being deported to Rwanda.

Labour’s Vernon Corker told peers the country’s reputation was at stake, stressing that it “cannot be right” that the underlying bill exempts ministers from international law.

The bill is currently in a state of parliamentary ping-pong as it returns to the House of Commons after the Easter recess.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Intercepting boats is one of our top priorities. The cost of the asylum system could be as high as £11bn a year by 2026 and we make no apology for pursuing bold solutions, such as our work with Rwanda to stop ships and save lives.

“All government spending undergoes thorough due diligence to ensure value for money.”

Labour’s shadow immigration secretary Stephen Kinnock said the cost of the flight was “insulting”: “The Home Secretary clearly believes that spending £600m of taxpayers’ money on the Rwandan government to take in 300 refugees is not enough Insulting and therefore decided to cancel the cost of this flight.” Spending £165,000 on a flight to sign up for this stupid plan. This administration’s enthusiasm for wasting taxpayer money knows no bounds.

He added: “Labour will transfer the cash set aside for Rwanda into a cross-border police force and security partnership to disrupt criminal smuggling gangs at their source and establish a new deportation force to quickly remove those who have no right to be here .”