Downing Street has declared the Tories’ policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda “dead and buried” in one of the first acts of the new Labour government.
The prime minister’s official spokesman confirmed that no flights carrying immigrants to the east African country will ever take off.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has also launched a probe into the hundreds of millions of pounds spent by the previous government on the disastrous policy.
Keir Starmer pledged to scrap the Rwanda scheme - which was launched more than two years ago - during the election campaign.
Briefing journalists this morning, the PM’s spokesman said: “We are ending the Rwanda scheme and we’ll set out further detail in due course.
“Clearly the government has set out its very clear position that the Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started. The scheme was cancelled and flights won’t go ahead.”
He said the government’s aim would now be to “secure our borders and smash the gangs” bringing illegal immigrants across the Channel in small boats.
Yvette Cooper said: “The Conservatives ran this scheme for two-and-a-half years and sent simply four volunteers as well as hundreds of millions of pounds.
“I will be auditing all of the details around the money and the legislation and the processes and I will set out more details to parliament.
“But the first step in our approach to all of these issues is to make sure we are putting the money instead into boosting our border security.”