Does Rishi Sunak think he’s going to hit his key targets? The Prime Minister had to answer this question repeatedly today after being asked by members of the powerful Liaison Committee. His basic answer was that he was still very committed to the targets – but couldn’t say that he definitely would meet them.
A particularly difficult set of questions came from Home Affairs Select Committee chair Diana Johnson, who grilled him on the details of how his Rwanda deportation policy would stop the boats, as Sunak has promised. The Prime Minister was very keen instead to talk about the agreement the government had struck with Albania, but said he was confident that the government would succeed in its appeal against the Court of Appeal ruling on Rwanda. ‘Our belief remains that the plan that we have is legal, it’s compliant with all our obligations, and we’ll be appealing it vigorously.’
Johnson pointed out that the Rwandan government had said the capacity of the scheme was 500, while more than 8,000 people had come to Britain on small boats.
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