According to Labour leader Keir Starmer, his party will not permit any deportation flights to depart for Rwanda once they win the upcoming general election. Following a speech outlining his intentions to combat illegal immigration, Starmer vowed to “absolutely, flights and all,” abandon the Rwanda plan.
“If Labor wins that general election, there will be no flights scheduled or taking off after the general election,” Starmer stated to Sky News.
The Labour leader made the pledges in Deal, which is a part of the constituency that Natalie Elphicke, a Conservative who defected to Labour this week, represents. Before starting his speech, Elphicke introduced Starmer and stated that Labour “occupies the centre ground and looks to the future” under his leadership. “On the issue of small boats, Rishi Sunak’s lack of delivery is clearest,” she continued.
Despite the fact that there are currently no flights leaving for Rwanda, Home Secretary James Cleverly said it was “comic” for Labour to abandon the programme when it was “demonstrably” working.
Starmer said he would replace it with a border security command, calling it a “gimmick” and a “waste of money.”
“Of course that means we won’t operate the scheme at all,” he continued. I’m not going to use gimmicks or beat up a dead horse.
Starmer stated that it was necessary to reduce the number of people crossing the Channel “materially,” but he refused to commit to “stop the boats,” Sunak’s catchphrase.
While he would not place a “false number” on his plans, he stated that he would “like it to come down completely.”
On July 4, a week from now, the general election in the United Kingdom will take place. On July 5, the polls close at 7 a.m. AEST. First-past-the-post voting is used to elect the 650 members of the House of Commons, with the candidate receiving the most votes winning a seat.
In the UK, votes are transported to a central location within each seat for counting, rather than being counted at individual polling places. Due to this delay in the results, the majority of seats will be announced on July 5 between late morning and mid-afternoon AEST.
The Guardian’s national poll tracker has Labour leading the Conservatives by just over 20 points. Vote shares are 41.3% Labour, 21.0% Conservatives, 15.5% for the far-right Reform, 11.1% Liberal Democrats and 5.8% Greens. Recent individual polls have Labour leading the Conservatives by 16 to 24 points.
Reform and, to a lesser extent, the Lib Dems have gained ground on Labour and the Conservatives in the past few weeks. The gap between Labour and the Conservatives has remained constant.
Because of the first-past-the-post election system, Labour will win by a landslide if these polls are repeated. Labour is predicted by The Guardian to win 424 of the 650 seats, followed by the Conservatives with 135, the Lib Dems with 47, and the Scottish National Party (SNP) with 19.