Just two BBC Question Time audience members back Rwanda plan despite PM's brag

19 January 2024 , 08:10

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Just two BBC Question Time audience members back Rwanda plan despite PM's brag

Just two members of the BBC Question Time audience said they support the Government's Rwanda plan - rubbishing Rishi Sunak's claim it's the "will of the people".

Mr Sunak made the brazen claim as he called on peers not to savage his Safety of Rwanda Bill. In a blistering assessment of the scheme, which has so far seen the Government hand over £240million to Rwanda, barrister Hashi Mohamed accused the Government of spreading "poison".

A further £50million is due to be paid in April, with further annual payments due for the next two years. And on top of that there will be a fee for each asylum seeker sent to the African nation - but ministers won't say how much this is.

Mr Mohamed said: "It's unviable. It's expensive and the only person it's working for is the Rwandans because they won't give us a penny back. And what we're seeing right now, instead of them actually dealing with this properly and actually having some real ideas, you know what they're doing? They're attacking our judges. They're attacking our rule of law. They are dividing a society."

The Rwanda plan had very little support in the audience

And he continued: "They are making us feel that refugees are the scum and who are foreign. they refer to the European courts, that we are a part of and have United Kingdom judges, as foreign courts. It's not only just disgusting... it's unconscionable. The rhetoric is poison. And we have to acknowledge that."

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Asked by presenter Fiona Bruce how many people in the audience in Peterborough, which had a narrow Tory majority in the 2019 election, just two held their hands up.

Yesterday Mr Sunak gave a bizarre press conference demanding the House of Lords doesn't "frustrate the will of the people". It follows a crunch vote in the Commons on Wednesday which saw Tory rebels back down, despite saying they don't think the PM's plan will work.

And it doesn't look like the public is enthusiastic about the controversial scheme. Polling released by YouGov suggests the public isn't won over. It showed 53% do not think the deportation scheme is going to stop the boats, with just 28% thinking it will. And 47% believe it isn't good value for money.

Dave Burke