Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major has criticised the previous government’s Rwanda asylum plan, branding it “un-Conservative, un-British” and “odious”, BBC reported on 18 September 2024.
“I thought it was un-Conservative, un-British, if one dare say in a secular society, un-Christian, and unconscionable and I thought that this is really not the way to treat people,” he said.
The UK’s Conservative government and Rwanda agreed a Migration and Economic Development Partnership in April 2022. It included a five-year ‘asylum partnership arrangement’ upgraded to a formal treaty in December 2023.
The vicious arrangement with Rwanda would have allowed sending certain people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda, where the Rwandan government would decide their asylum claims. If their claims were successful, they would be granted asylum in Rwanda.
In a tweet on 16 June 2022, Priti Patel supporter Harrow East MP Bob Blackman said: “During a (Rwanda) Statement by the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, I asked what can be done to speed up the process of deportation”.
On 12 December 2023, he voted for Emergency legislation to approve a deportation deal with Rwanda.
Speaking in the Commons on 6th December 2023 (UK-Rwanda Partnership), Blackman said “The message that needs to go to the people smugglers and those desperate people is: “If you make this desperate journey you will be removed to Rwanda, a safe country, for processing”—and this is the key point—“from now on, not in many months’ time.”
Perhaps he was unaware that on 15 November 2023, the UK’s Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful because Rwanda was not a safe country to which asylum seekers could be removed.
Another Conservative, Lord Popat of Harrow, who is active in African matters, actively supported the discredited Rwanda plan: “As a refugee myself, I welcome the government’s Rwanda plan” – he stated at politicsathome.com.
He was David Cameron appointed UK Trade Envoy for Rwanda and Uganda from 2016 until the last general election.
Speaking in the Lords (21 Nov 2023), he said “In dealing with Rwanda for the past nine years, I have found the Government to be very honest, transparent and forthcoming”.
Lord Popat has led several British delegations to Rwanda and Uganda, including two in 2019.
The two Harrow Conservatives, who supported the ill Rwanda plan, should apologise.
There is also a case for the public enquiry to find the use of public money tied up in the lucrative ‘scheme’, most beneficial to Rwanda. Publicly available information suggests that, as of July 2024, at least £318 million had been spent on the scheme.
The Labour government has now rightly axed the Rwanda scheme.
“I thought it was un-Conservative, un-British, if one dare say in a secular society, un-Christian, and unconscionable and I thought that this is really not the way to treat people,” he said.
The UK’s Conservative government and Rwanda agreed a Migration and Economic Development Partnership in April 2022. It included a five-year ‘asylum partnership arrangement’ upgraded to a formal treaty in December 2023.
The vicious arrangement with Rwanda would have allowed sending certain people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda, where the Rwandan government would decide their asylum claims. If their claims were successful, they would be granted asylum in Rwanda.
In a tweet on 16 June 2022, Priti Patel supporter Harrow East MP Bob Blackman said: “During a (Rwanda) Statement by the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, I asked what can be done to speed up the process of deportation”.
On 12 December 2023, he voted for Emergency legislation to approve a deportation deal with Rwanda.
Speaking in the Commons on 6th December 2023 (UK-Rwanda Partnership), Blackman said “The message that needs to go to the people smugglers and those desperate people is: “If you make this desperate journey you will be removed to Rwanda, a safe country, for processing”—and this is the key point—“from now on, not in many months’ time.”
Perhaps he was unaware that on 15 November 2023, the UK’s Supreme Court declared the policy unlawful because Rwanda was not a safe country to which asylum seekers could be removed.
Another Conservative, Lord Popat of Harrow, who is active in African matters, actively supported the discredited Rwanda plan: “As a refugee myself, I welcome the government’s Rwanda plan” – he stated at politicsathome.com.
He was David Cameron appointed UK Trade Envoy for Rwanda and Uganda from 2016 until the last general election.
Speaking in the Lords (21 Nov 2023), he said “In dealing with Rwanda for the past nine years, I have found the Government to be very honest, transparent and forthcoming”.
Lord Popat has led several British delegations to Rwanda and Uganda, including two in 2019.
The two Harrow Conservatives, who supported the ill Rwanda plan, should apologise.
There is also a case for the public enquiry to find the use of public money tied up in the lucrative ‘scheme’, most beneficial to Rwanda. Publicly available information suggests that, as of July 2024, at least £318 million had been spent on the scheme.
The Labour government has now rightly axed the Rwanda scheme.
Harrow Monitoring Group 