Suella Braverman 'resorting to photo ops to push unworkable Rwanda plan'
Suella Braverman's plans to send the first asylum seekers to Rwanda by the summer has been blasted as “ unethical".
Labour shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy accused the Government of resorting to "PR opportunities and photo ops" as the Home Secretary jetted off to capital Kigali.
The controversial partnership has seen the UK government hand over £140 million to the Rwandan government since last April - but has yet to see a single person moved there.
Ms Nandy said if the Government was serious about tackling immigration, it would spend the cash on a cross-border unit targeting traffickers.
She told Sky News' Sophy Ridge: "This is just more stunts from this Government.
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"What they should be doing is what Labour has been calling for for a very long time: Take the money that is being spent on this unethical, unworkable scheme and put it into the National Crime Agency to create a cross-border cell in order to disrupt the criminal gangs who are profiting from people's misery."
Lisa Nandy says Labour has a more effective plan to tackle trafficking gangs (Daily Mirror/Andy Stenning)Tory minister Oliver Dowden said the Government wants to "get cracking" on sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
But he admitted he doesn't "relish" sending children abroad. Asked about the prospect of children being deported, Mr Dowden said: "I don't relish any of this and I really wish we didn't have to do it, and the Government isn't running to do this.
"The Government is doing this because this is a major problem."
Ms Braverman visited houses earmarked for migrants at the weekend, bizarrely quipping: "These houses are really beautiful, great quality, really welcoming and I really like your interior designer. I need some advice for myself."
But her comments drew accusations she was "playing politics with people's lives and chasing cheap headlines" with the plan.
Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: "This is a new low for Suella Braverman. She has already wasted taxpayers money on this pointless PR trip.
The Home Secretary touring a building site in Rwandan capital Kigali (PA)"Braverman is playing politics with people's lives and chasing cheap headlines instead of doing her job properly.
"People are losing their lives on the channel and all Braverman has in response is foul comments about interior design. What a disgrace."
Labour's Diane Abbott tweeted a picture of the Home Secretary in Rwanda, adding: " Suella Braverman in Rwanda having a good laugh about all the asylum seekers that she is going to dump there."
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Defending the visit, Mr Dowden said: "The purpose of the Home Secretary's visit was to further strengthen our relationships with Rwanda, so people should feel confident in this policy."
The deportation policy - unveiled by Ms Braverman's predecessor Priti Patel last April - has been bogged down by legal challenges and is currently being looked at by the Court of Appeal.
Cowardly Suella Braverman has come under fire for excluding papers critical of the Government - including The Mirror - from her Rwanda trip.
The Home Secretary travelled to Kigali alongside a number of right-wing media outlets such as GB News and the Daily Mail.
But there was no place for the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent or The Mirror.
Martin Bright, editor at large at Index on Censorship, said: “We are concerned to hear that journalists from organisations judged to be critical of the government’s immigration policy have not been invited … Democracy depends on an open and transparent relationship between government and the media, where all journalists are able to scrutinise the government."
He added that access to ministers should not be "treated as a reward for favourable coverage".
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