The government has paid a further £100 million to the Rwandan government this year, despite no planes taking off. An extra £50 million is expected to be spent over the coming year, bringing the overall cost to £290 million, according to figures just released by the Home Office.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-rwanda-bill-suella-braverman-b2460660.html

Meanwhile, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has said that the current Rwanda bill does not go far enough. A former lawyer, she has demanded “a more robust alternative  that excluded international and human rights law”. She also condemned “expansive human rights laws flowing from the European convention on human rights” as they were stopping Rwanda flights. She would like the Uk to leave the European convention on human rights (EHCR) altogether.

Jonathan Jones, the former head of the government’s legal department, has said that the bill would stop most, but not all challenges to deportation. In an analysis published by the Institute for Government think tank, he said that Clause 4 of the bill “does to limited extent allow claims that Rwanda is not a safe country for a particular person ‘based on compelling evidence relating to specifically to the person’s individual circumstances’ (rather than grounds that Rwanda is not a safe country in general).”

The Rwanda bill has re-opened huge fault lines in the Conservative party between right-wingers and the more moderate One Nation Tories.