Back to geography class for minister as he gets in muddle on Congo and Rwanda

HOME Office minister Chris Philp today denied he was ignorant about African geography after appearing to confuse Rwanda with the Democratic Republic of Congo on the BBC’s Question Time.

The audience laughed and Labour frontbencher Wes Streeting looked on in disbelief when the policing minister said on last night’s programme: “Well, I mean, Rwanda is a different country to Congo, isn’t it? It’s a different country?”

Mr Philp was defending the Government’s plan to send cross-Channel migrants on a one-way trip for resettlement in Rwanda under hard-fought legislation that received Royal Assent yesterday. Ministers are targeting the first flights in July.

An audience member, who said he came from the DRC, asked about the city of Goma on the border of Rwanda. It has been plagued by years of violence including at the hands of rebels allegedly backed by the Rwandan government, which denies the claim. He asked Mr Philp whether any relatives in Goma could be sent to Rwanda under the new law if they tried to enter Britain illegally, adding: “Does that make any sense to you?” The minister replied: “No, I think there’s an exclusion on people from Rwanda being sent to Rwanda.”

After it was pointed out to him that the question was about different countries, he insisted that the law contained safeguards to prevent anyone being sent to Rwanda if they would face “serious and irreversible harm”. The Conservative MP for Croydon South denied this morning that he did not know the difference between the DRC, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, and Rwanda, one of its smallest.

“He was having trouble hearing clearly what the gentleman was saying, and his point about Rwanda/DR Congo was a clearly rhetorical question, as is evident from the clip,” a source close to Mr Philp said. “He was obviously not asking substantively if they were different countries.”

The Government has already committed £290 million to the Rwanda scheme before any migrants have been

This is not really a deterrent. It’s always about a sideshow distracting from their incredibly poor record

deported. Labour is vowing to scrap it and spend the money on law enforcement and enhanced security co-operation with Europe.

Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Sky News: “This is not really a deterrent. This is all about politics. It’s always about a sideshow from, to be honest, distracting from their incredibly poor record, and there is such better usage of the funding.”

Irish deputy premier Micheál Martin reportedly said the legislation was a “knee-jerk” response to a complex problem, and was already driving an influx of asylum seekers crossing to Ireland from the UK because people were “fearful” of staying here.