Ex-Tory prime minister Sir John Major has called the former government’s Rwanda deportation plan “un-Conservative and un-British”.
The scheme, which was introduced two-and-a-half years ago and sought to send UK asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, was criticised by the former PM as “odious”.
Major, who served as prime minister from 1990 to 1997, told the BBC: “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.”
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly has said that he would resurrect the Rwanda scheme if he were to win the Conservative leadership election go on to become prime minister.
Labour scrapped the Rwanda plan immediately upon entering government.
Amid the ongoing leadership contest, Major also urged his party to appeal to the centre-right “where our natural support really lies”.
He added: “We lost five [seats] to Reform UK and people are jumping up and down, and some, rather reckless people are saying, well we must merge with them. Well, that will be fatal.”
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Rishi Sunak as prime minister had pledged to begin Rwanda deportation flights in June or July, before calling an election for the same period.
It meant when the new Labour government announced it was scrapping the plan in July, just four people had travelled to Rwanda voluntarily under the scheme.
‘A costly con’: Yvette Cooper reveals £700m Rwanda spend ‘to send just four volunteers’
Announcing the government was scrapping the scheme in a House of Commons statement, Yvette Cooper revealed the last government planned to spend “over £10 billion” on the Rwanda deportation scheme.
The home secretary described the policy as “the biggest waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen” and a “costly con.”
“The failure of this policy lies with the previous UK government, it has been a costly con and the taxpayer has had to pay the price”, she said.
At the time, James Cleverly accused Cooper of “hyperbole and made-up numbers” and said Labour had “scrapped the Rwanda partnership on ideological grounds”.
“The reality is everybody knows, including the people smugglers, that the small boat problem is going to get worse, indeed has already got worse under Labour because they have no deterrent”, the shadow home secretary told MPs.
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