Rwanda scheme’s £700m bill ‘most shocking waste of taxpayer money ever’, says Yvette Cooper

13 comments

1. ***The Telegraph reports:***

   The [Rwanda scheme](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rwanda/) has cost taxpayers £700 million despite only four migrants voluntarily being sent to Kigali, [Yvette Cooper](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/yvette-cooper/) disclosed on Monday.

   The Home Secretary described it as the “most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” she had ever seen as she confirmed that the Rwanda scheme will be scrapped and the law will be changed so that nearly 90,000 migrants can seek asylum in the UK.

   She told MPs that the Tories had budgeted to spend more than £10 billion over six years on the deal known as the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with the [east African country](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/09/no-refund-cancelling-rwanda-plan-government/).

   Ms Cooper said the £700 million already spent included £290 million upfront payments to Rwanda, chartering flights [that never took off](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/21/nigel-farage-says-rwanda-flights-unlikely-to-ever-take-off/), detaining hundreds of migrants and then releasing them, and paying for 1,000 civil servants to work on the scheme. Just four failed asylum seekers volunteered to go to Rwanda.

   It had been thought that 90,000 migrants who arrived in the UK after March 2023 were covered by Rishi Sunak’s [Illegal Migration Act](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/06/05/rishi-sunak-house-of-lords-illegal-migration-bill/).

   This gave the home secretary powers to detain anyone arriving illegally and deport them to Rwanda or send them back to their home country.

   **Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/22/rwanda-scheme-shocking-waste-of-money-says-yvette-cooper/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/22/rwanda-scheme-shocking-waste-of-money-says-yvette-cooper/)

2. Giving france money to stop the boats being a close second..

3. Unfortunately it’s just a small drop in the ocean of wasted money and nothing close to the ‘most shocking waste of tax payers money’

4. Let’s not forget about the billions in PPE that was ‘spaffed up against the wall’ and the billions on the track and trace. It literally is idiocracy that no one is being held accountable for it.

5. Did you know the NHS COVID app cost 10 billion?

   Or rather – it probably cost 100k and the rest was given to friends with businesses. 
   4 flights to Rwanda wouldn’t cost 700m even if they were for a private jet with strippers on it.

6. The Tory party should be made to pay it back.
   Is there any precedent for that?

7. Lots of room to asset strip the people who are behind all these cons

8. I know we need to bash the old government and I do accept that £700m is a lot of money but for context it represents 1.5 days of spend on the NHS.

   Whether it would ultimately have been a deterrent is up for ever long debate but at least they were looking to do something to stop people coming here is such vast numbers. The jury is still out on what the current government are actually going to do. It’s easy to say the last lot did a crap job – it’s way harder to actually do something yourself.

   And for clarity, I’m not a Tory voter.

9. I dunno man, yes a massive waste, but how much was spaffed on useless PPE and contracts for mates during the pandemic? 

10. Sounds bad to say but shooting at the boat to deflate and let them swim back to France sounds ridiculously cheaper

11. 700m seems like a small amount of money to spend on trying to come up with a solution to the biggest threat this country has faced in decades.

    The boats won’t stop until the repercussions for getting caught are worse than staying in France.

12. Wait until they unpick the covid VIP lane, 700 million will look like spare change down the back of the sofa.

13. Remind me why Rees Mogg gets to retire to his country estate? Take all their money and throw them on the mercy of the state they gutted.