MINISTERS today defended handing Rwanda a further £150million despite no migrants being removed – saying it pales in comparison to their eye-watering hotel bills.
It comes on top of the £140million already sent to Kigali since the initial deal last year – hiking the total bill to £290million.
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Rishi Sunak has all-but staked his premiership on getting deportation flights off the ground and has told Tory rebels to fall in behind his “toughest ever” immigration plan.
Chief Home Office mandarin Sir Matthew Rycroft yesterday admitted sending Rwanda £100million this year with the expectation of an extra £50million next year.
The top civil servant last week refused to reveal the additional sums to MPs at a bungling Commons committee grilling.
But as pressure mounted to state the true cost to taxpayers, he wrote last night: “Ministers have agreed that I can disclose now the payments so far in the 2023-24 financial year.”
New immigration minister Tom Pursglove today insisted the cash was value for money if it gets migrants out of hotels.
He said: “I think it’s right that we go about this in the way that we are and when you consider that we’re spending £8million a day currently in the asylum system you have to look at those spends in that context. That is not sustainable.”
But Labour’s Yvette Cooper said: “This is just incredible. The Tories’ have wasted an astronomical £290million of taxpayers’ money on a failing scheme which hasn’t sent a single asylum seeker to Rwanda.
“How many more blank cheques will Rishi Sunak write before the Tories come clean about this scheme being a total farce?”
Home Secretary James Cleverly signed a fresh treaty with Rwanda this week, insisting it has cost Britain no new money.
But it emerged there are costs that arise as a result of the agreement, including funding legal aid to asylum seekers.
The PM yesterday scrambled to save his Rwanda plan from a bruising Tory revolt – pledging: “I’m going to see this thing through.”
He appealed to rebellious MPs to help him “finish the job” of stopping small boats as allies warned mutineers against “insanity” bids to oust him.
But his fightback stopped short of pulling the nuclear option of making the forthcoming vote on the emergency legislation a “confidence” issue of his premiership.
Mr Sunak battled to stop Robert Jenrick’s resignation blowing up the package he believes will get removal flights going by the spring.
