The Tories’ Rwanda scheme cost nearly three quarters of a billion pounds despite failing to send a single asylum seeker to the country, it has been revealed.
Official figures released on Monday by the Home Office showed that a staggering £715m of taxpayers’ money was spent on the failed policy, which was scrapped by Labour after the election.
Further multi-million pound payments would have been due to Rwanda had the scheme continued.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said it showed the scheme was “a grotesque waste of money”.
Former Conservative home secretary Priti Patel signed the “economic partnership agreement” with Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta in April, 2022.
The aim was for the east African country to accept asylum seekers who entered the UK illegally and deter others from attempting to cross the English Channel from France in small boats.
But the European Court of Human Rights prevented any deportation flights from taking off, and the policy was eventually ruled unlawful by the Uk Supreme Court.
According to the Home Office, Rwanda received £290m from the UK government, with a further £50m being spent on flights, escorting, airfield and police costs.
Some £95m was spent on detention and reception centres, while £280m went on other fixed costs, such as developing IT systems and legal costs.
The Home Office said: “During more than 2 years in which the policy and partnership operated, only four volunteers and no asylum seekers were sent to Rwanda.”
In a statement to MPs, Cooper said: “84,000 people crossed the Channel from the day the deal was signed to the day it was scrapped. This so-called deterrent did not result in a single deportation.
“Or stop a single boat from crossing the Channel. For the British taxpayer, it was
a grotesque waste of money.”
Border security and asylum minister Angela Eagle said: “In the Tories’ own words, the asylum system is ‘broken’ and they ‘let the country down badly’ over 14 years in power.
“Now the sheer eye-watering scale of the Conservatives’ Rwanda gimmick has been exposed. The taxpayer has footed a £700 million bill thanks to their incompetence and Kemi Badenoch would do it all over again.
“This government has already started the hard graft. We hired more caseworkers to tackle the asylum backlog and get people out of hotels. We’ve also removed thousands of those with no right to be in the UK.
“Labour is getting on with cleaning up the Conservatives’ mess. Our new Border Security Command is working with our European partners to smash the criminal gang networks driving small boat crossings.”
Lisa Smart, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, said: “The Conservatives should be utterly ashamed of themselves. £715 million wasted on their failed Rwanda scheme with absolutely nothing to show for it is a disgraceful waste of taxpayer money.
“Not only did they recklessly throw millions down the drain, but the Conservatives left our asylum system in a state of disrepair.”