Rishi Sunak is taking us for fools on immigration

Rishi Sunak claims that the Rwanda scheme will act as an “indispensable deterrent” against migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. I doubt it. Given that the risk of drowning doesn’t deter them, why should the risk of being flown to Rwanda? Rwanda, after all, is a nice place, the Government tells us. It’s just passed a Bill, decreeing it to be officially lovely.

The Rwanda scheme is really just a cynical distraction, designed to pull the wool over voters’ eyes. Make them focus on the relatively tiny number of migrants arriving on small boats (30,000 last year) – so that they overlook the vast number arriving by legal means. Because, if voters stopped to think about how many migrants the Government actively chooses to let in, they might get quite cross.

Last year, the UK had net immigration of 672,000 – more than the population of any British city except London or Birmingham. Most voters don’t realise. When pollsters asked the public how many migrants they thought entered Britain last year, the average guess was just 70,000. So, if Sunak wants to stop voters noticing the true scale of immigration on his watch, I suppose it’s working.

Last month, as it happens, Suella Braverman said that, when she was home secretary, Sunak was always happy to have meetings with her about the small boats. But whenever she wanted to have a meeting about cutting legal migration, she claimed he avoided her. Funny, that.