Why is Priti Patel trying to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda? Is it to stop so many of them drowning in the Channel after their people smugglers’ inflatable boats have sunk? Is it to help develop the Rwandan economy? Or is this purely a political move?
The Home Secretary naturally claimed the first two justifications for her new policy when she gave a statement about it in the Commons this afternoon, and faced accusations from the Opposition that she was really pursuing the third. The most stinging criticism came not from the Labour frontbench, though, but from one of Patel’s own Conservative predecessors as Home Secretary, former prime minister Theresa May.
May has, of course, been very critical of a whole range of government policies
May told the Commons that ‘with respect to my right honourable friend, and from what I’ve heard and seen so far of this policy, I do not support the removal to Rwanda policy on the grounds of legality, practicality and efficacy’.
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