Rishi Sunak says asylum seeker flights to Rwanda will take off "in 10 to 12 weeks"

Speaking at a press conference the prime minister said plans had been put in place for the controversial plan’s first flights to take off in “10 to 12 weeks,” after originally saying flights would take off this Spring.

He said it was “later than we would have liked but you can see the delays that we’ve been subjected to thanks to the Labour Party.”

The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, the piece of legislation which will allow the plan to go ahead is expected to go back and forth between both houses of Parliament today, after being amended and sent back to the Commons by peers on a number of occasions last week.

Mr Sunak blamed the Labour Party for the bill’s lack of progress in the Lords, although large numbers of crossbench peers voted against the government last week. “But we have always been clear that processing will take time and if Labour peers had not spent weeks holding up the Bill in the House of Lords to try to block these flights altogether, we would have begun this process weeks ago,” he said.

At a Downing Street press conference the prime minister promised: “We will start the flights and we will stop the boats.”

He said an airfield was on standby and charter flights had been booked to take asylum seekers on the one-way trip to Rwanda.

Mr Sunak said: “Enough is enough. No more prevarication, no more delay. Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes. No ifs, no buts. These flights are going to Rwanda.”

He told the press conference: “To detain people while we prepare to remove them, we’ve increased detention spaces to 2,200. To quickly process claims, we’ve got 200 trained, dedicated caseworkers ready and waiting.

“To deal with any legal cases quickly and decisively, the judiciary have made available 25 courtrooms and identified 150 judges who could provide over 5,000 sitting days.”

Asked about reports accommodation in Kigali for asylum seekers sent from the UK to Rwanda had been sold to the private sector, Mr Sunak said his Rwandan counterpart president Paul Kagame remained “completely committed” to the plan.

“Paul is completely committed to making this partnership work,” he said.

“Whenever we have needed something from them or we have had to address concerns that have been raised by our courts, they have been willing to work with us.

“We have done it constructively and collaboratively.

“I think the question you should ask, and Andrew (Mitchell) spoke to this morning, is: Why? Why, because Rwanda cares about tackling this issue.”

Rishi Sunak declined to give details on numbers of people likely to leave on flights to Rwanda, but said there will be a “regular rhythm” of “multiple flights a month through the summer and beyond”.

He said he would not provide exact operational details due to the “loud minority of people who will do absolutely anything and everything to disrupt this policy from succeeding”.

He added: “What I will say is this is not just about one flight, right?

“This is about a regular rhythm, multiple flights a month, through the summer and beyond."