Starmer will reverse Rwanda policy even if flights start and small boats decline

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Sir Keir Starmer said a Labour government would reverse the Conservatives’ Rwanda policy even if sending asylum seekers to central Africa is judged legal and small boats crossings decline.

The Labour leader insisted that putting Channel migrants on one-way flights to Rwanda was the “wrong policy” as he kicked off his party’s crucial conference in Liverpool.

Sir Keir also claimed a Labour government could boost the UK’s economic growth “within months” of taking office, said nurses and doctors would be willing to do more overtime to fulfil his NHS plan, and vowed to get 1.5m homes built in five years.

Grilled on the small boats crisis on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sir Keir was asked if he would stop Rwanda flights if they had already started up and Channel crossings had been reduced.

“Yes – I think it’s the wrong policy,” said the Labour. “It’s hugely expensive. It’s a tiny number, a tiny number of individuals who go to Rwanda. And the real problem is at source.”

Pressed again about reversing Rishi Sunak and home secretary Suella Braverman’s plan, even if everyone can see it’s working, if fewer people were getting in small boats, Sir Keir said: “You’re putting this to me on the basis it’s working.”

He added: “We’ve been told by the government time and again that what they’re saying, even seeing, that they have got a Rwanda scheme that will reduce numbers. That hasn’t happened.”

“Nobody wants to see these crossings across the Channel,” said the Labour leader. “They will only stop if we smash the criminal gangs who are running this vile trade.”

Sir Keir said the government’s rhetoric was getting Britain “absolutely nowhere” and he was “convinced” a Labour government could work with France and other allies in the EU to “break” the people-trafficking gangs.

He also pledged that Labour would cut the huge asylum backlog. “You’ve then also got to process the claims. Because I think most people would be shocked to learn that of all the people who have arrived by small boats over the last year or so, 1 per cent have had their claims processed.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “confident” he can get the UK economy growing “within months” of entering No 10. He denied that it amounted to “keeping your fingers crossed” – arguing that Labour’s plan for green investment would boost GDP.

He said the US Inflation Reduction Act has acted as a “magnet for investment” for green technology, while the EU has its own response. “We should be in that race and I’m confident, talking to our partners, that we can get ahead in that race and we can be the winners for the next generation of jobs.”

Sir Keir also reiterated his aspiration to get 1.5 million houses built within the first five years of a Labour government and said “we have to get real” about where they are built because Mr Sunak had been “too weak” to take on Tory MPs with countryside constituencies.

“We have to challenge the planning laws, we have to get real about where we’re going to build and we have to work with developers to get there at speed,” said the Labour leader.

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested the party could offer incentives to so-called “nimbys” to allow green development in their area.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, she said this could mean cutting energy bills for people who live near onshore wind farms or electricity pylons. “I think that people deserve something in return,” she said. “It’s the same with housing.”

Mr Starmer has announced a plan to tackle NHS waiting lists, backed by £1.5bn which Labour says would come from scrapping the non-dom tax status.

The plan would create more than two million extra appointments a year, Labour claimed, with proposals to pay doctors and nurses more overtime to carry out procedures like scans and operations on the weekend.

Sir Keir admitted in his BBC interview that doctors could earn more working in the private sector than doing overtime under his proposals to cut waiting lists.

Asked why they would do NHS work instead, he said: “Because they want to bring down the waiting list as well. There’s a huge strain on the health service.”

Meanwhile, Sir Keir did praise Mr Sunak for calling him on the day he became PM to ask they work together on national security and terrorism. “I admire that, I think it was the right thing to do.”

The Labour leader said there is “no justification” for the attack on Israel, arguing that Hamas has deliberately pushed back the prospect of a peace deal.