Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has said the deportation of ‘one measly migrant’ to Rwanda did not make the policy a success
Mr Anderson admitted the reduction in student visa applications was a success but said it was down to backbenchers on the right of the party and not the party leadership.
Speaking on GB News, Lee Anderson said: “When we were drafting the Rwanda bill, nobody mentioned the Irish deterrent. Nobody mentioned that these illegal migrants would be scarpering over the border to the Republic of Ireland.
“It’s one person that’s gone to Rwanda, bearing in mind in that time we’ve spent billions on accommodation and legal fees for illegal migrants. We’ve given the French hundreds of millions of pounds, we’ve had about four different home secretaries. There are people who have died in the Channel and they still keep coming over.
“Over 120,000 have dropped on our shores in the last three or four years and we’ve sent one measly migrant over to Rwanda and we’re hailing this as a success.
“I think I’ve got a lot of time for some of the stuff in Number 10 but if they’re spinning this as a good news message they really need to get out more.
“[The drop in student visas] is good news, but let’s just be clear where this came from. When I was a Conservative party Member of Parliament, this was the conversation that me and some to the right of the party we’re having with our Home Secretaries for the past three or four years.
“This has not come from number 10, this has come from pressure from the back benches on the right of the party. We’ve got to give some credit to people like Suella Braverman, Priti Patel and Robert Jenrick who have pushed for this behind the scenes.
“The PM and Number 10 didn’t see legal migration as a problem at all. In fact, they encouraged it. They thought it made us economically better off and we know different.
“It definitely wouldn’t happen [under Labour]. It is good news and the sad thing is, if we get a Labour government this year, which is looking increasingly likely, they will probably claim credit for this even though they want open borders.
“Keir Starmer constantly said that the Rwanda plan was doomed to failure, that he would scrap it, he will reverse it.
“He’s going to have a lot of trouble from his backbenchers if even thinks about keeping the Rwanda plan; he’ll have massive problems from the John McDonnells and the Angela Rayners and people like that.
“It’s another bandwagon, it’s another U-turn and this man would do anything to get into Number 10.”
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