The first flight removing asylum seekers to Rwanda will take off no matter how few people are on board, the foreign secretary has indicated as she defended the policy as “completely moral”.
Truss insisted “some” individuals would be on the plane to east Africa on Tuesday evening but could not say how many as she insisted the scheme is both legal and “value for money”.
The archbishops of Canterbury and York described the “immoral” plan as one that “shames Britain” as they added to vehement criticism from opposition parties.
Yesterday, Yvette Copper tore into the government’s policy.
She said: “This policy isn’t just unworkable, unethical & expensive, it’s also profoundly unBritish & ignores our British values of decency & common sense… it’s time to think again.”
It was left to the BBC’s Sally Nugent to hold Liz Truss to account.
Nugent asked: “Are you saying this flight might be empty to Rwanda today & it will take off anyway?”
Truss replied that the government ‘want to establish the principle of this route.’
Nugent shot back saying: “A flight like this costs around £250,000 that’s a huge amount of money just to make a point?”
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