Rishi Sunak has declined to say when he hopes to fulfil his pledge to stop small boat crossings over the Channel or to set out how many people could be deported to Rwanda, as he was questioned by the liaison committee of senior MPs.
Under questioning from Diana Johnson, the Labour MP who chairs the home affairs committee, the prime minister indicated that any progress in reducing the flow of people making unofficial crossings from France depended on the supreme court allowing the Rwanda deportation to proceed.
Last week, the court of appeal ruled that the plan to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda, intended to be a disincentive to those crossing the Channel, was unlawful. Ministers now plan to seek the view of the supreme court.
Questioned by Johnson as to whether he had a plan for stopping boat crossings, one of his key five pledges made six months ago, if the supreme court did not support the government, Sunak dodged the question.
“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,” he said.
Asked by Johnson if that meant he was “betting everything” on a positive court verdict, he said: “That’s not that’s not a fair characterisation of what we’re doing. Last year, and indeed this year, I set out a range of things we’re doing to tackle this problem.”
Sunak pointedly declined to say when he believed his pledge might be met, linking it to the court case: “So obviously the court will have to determine its own ruling, and that is outside of the government’s hands. It’s the court that determines the timing, but in the meantime, we can get on with a range of other things, as I said.”
Addressing the liaison committee, which groups together the chairs of the various subject-specific Commons select committees, Sunak also avoided Johnson’s question of where the more than 7,600 migrants and refugees who had crossed the Channel since the Rwanda policy become law would go, given Rwanda has said it can currently take 500 of them.
“I’m not going to talk about a private commercial contract that we have, but our Rwanda scheme, as we have said multiple times, is uncapped … which is why I believe it can act as a very helpful deterrent when the scheme is up and running,” he said.
Similarly, he was vague about when the backlog of unprocessed asylum claims, currently over 70,000, would be completed, talking only about “progress that has already been made”.
Sunak was also vague when challenged over whether his government would now miss its target to halve inflation, saying he would “leave that to the forecasters”.
He acknowledged that inflation was “proving more persistent than people anticipated” but insisted that did not mean his policy choices were “the wrong ones. Indeed, they’re the right ones.”
He added: “We just need to continue to stick to the course and that’s not easy. That involves difficult decisions, but those are the right long-term decisions for the country …”
Sunak said he was “working 100%” to deliver the policy and would “just keep throwing everything at it”, deploying all the levers at the government’s disposal.
Pressed by Treasury select committee chair, Harriett Baldwin, whether there was now a higher chance of the inflation target being missed, he said he wouldn’t spend his time on what he couldn’t control. “What I can control is what we’re doing,” he added.
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