Rishi Sunak Bets the House on Rwanda — and May Lose
The Tories have made a series of promises about migrant numbers they couldn’t keep. Now the UK prime minister’s authority hangs in the balance.
All on the line.
Photographer: JAMES MANNING/AFPOne famous definition of insanity, wrongly attributed to Einstein, is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” For 13 years the UK’s ruling Conservative party has been promising to bring immigration down to the “tens of thousands” — copyright former Prime Minister David Cameron, 2010. It has got nowhere even close.
Migrant numbers have ballooned and, despite the government’s strenuous efforts, would-be asylum seekers are still arriving in small boats across the sea from France. A scheme to process their applications (63,000 have come since June) outside of Britain in the central African country of Rwanda has foundered in the courts. Now the Tories are locked in a civil war over their failure.