Rwanda: No credible asylum plan, says Public Accounts Committee

One of the most important cross-party parliamentary committees says the Home Office does not have a credible plan to implement its Rwanda scheme for asylum seekers.

In a highly critical report, the Public Accounts Committee said the government’s accommodation plan had fallen “woefully short of reality”.

One site had cost 10 times more than the original £5m price tag.

So far, the government has spent £310m on the Rwanda scheme – and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says there will be no flight before polling day.

According to the figures from the National Audit Office, the spending watchdog, £290m of the £310m spent so far has been given to the African country.

Those costs are on top of money spent on housing more than 50,000 asylum seekers in the UK, following a decision last year to halt consideration of whether any of them should be recognised as refugees and given permission to work.