Rishi Sunak has abandoned his pledge to get deportation flights to Rwanda off the ground in the spring in another major U-turn.
The prime minister has announced this deadline repeatedly in the past – including just 10 days ago after holding talks with Rwandan president Paul Kagame in Downing Street.
But asked this morning whether the government will start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda before the summer, he dodged the question.
The embarrassing climbdown follows further delays to Sunak’s attempts pass his flagship Safety of Rwanda Bill.
The House of Lords defied the government to vote through two more amendments to the legislation on Wednesday night.
Sunak confirmed today that he wants parliament to finally pass the bill on Monday - five months after he announced he was bringing forward the “emergency legislation”.
He said: “Repeatedly, everyone has tried to block us from getting this bill through and yet again you saw this week Labour peers blocking us again and that’s enormously frustrating.
“Everyone’s patience with this has worn thin, mine certainly has. Our intention now is get this done on Monday. No more prevarication, no more delay, we are going to get this done on Monday and we will sit there and vote until it is done.”
Asked again if the flights would leave in the spring, the PM said: “The priority now is to get this bill passed. I’ve said very clearly we’re going to get this done on Monday – we don’t want any more prevarication or delay.
“Then we will work to get flights off so we can built that deterrent because that is the only way to resolve this issue.”
His comments come after Treasury minister Laura Trott told Sky News “there are many definitions of spring” when asked when the flights would take off.
It is more than two years since then prime minister Boris Johnson first unveiled the plan to send asylum seekers on a one-way ticket from the UK to Rwanda.
But repeated delays have meant that no migrants have yet been deported, despite the government already spending £500 million on the controversial policy.