Rishi Sunak to give briefing from Downing Street today

Rishi Sunak is to give a briefing on Monday and will use the press conference to set out the “robust” plans for getting flights carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda in the air. Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the Prime Minister will give details of the “operational plan”.

Mr Mitchell said the Government’s illegal migration operations committee is meeting at No 10 on Monday morning. “Then the Prime Minister will be holding a press conference to set out the operational plan, but I can assure you that the operational plans are robust, sensible and should work,” he said.

Mr Sunak said the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill sends a “clear message” that illegal migrants will not be able to stay in the UK. The Prime Minister, addressing the Government’s illegal migration operations committee meeting in Downing Street on Monday morning, said there must be “no more delay”.

Mr Sunak said Rwanda is a “safe country”, adding that his “landmark legislation” comes after “months and months of hard work and planning”. He added: “This bill sends a clear message; if you come here illegally, you won’t be able to stay.”

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Home Secretary James Cleverly were also present at the meeting. Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell said peers’ discussions about judicial arrangements for sending asylum seekers to Rwanda have been “patronising” and at times “border on racism”.

Addressing a House of Lords amendment to the Rwanda Bill which proposes independent monitoring of the country’s safety, separate from its own judiciary, Mr Mitchell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’ve listened to what has been said about the independence of the judiciary, the judicial arrangements that have been set up on Rwanda.

“The Rwandan judge, Judge Rugege, is an enormously distinguished and respected international jurist – indeed he is an honorary fellow in law at an Oxford college.

“Some of the discussions which have gone on in the Lords about the judicial arrangements, legal arrangements within Rwanda, have been patronising and, in my view, border on racism, so we don’t think it’s necessary to have that amendment either and that the necessary structures are in place to ensure that the scheme works properly and fairly.”

Mr Mitchell added that the legislation is “being obstructed” by Labour peers who refuse to “accept the will of the elected House of Commons”.