Sunak frantically tries to salvage migration plan as Rwanda Asylum runs aground:
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak trying his best but has failed fully block migrant boats coming to the UK. Last week hundreds defiant migrants entered the country.
DESPERATE TO GET RID OF ILLEGAL MIGRANTS – £3,000 BRIBE TO QUIT BRITAIN, ANY WILLING VICTIMS?
By SHAMLAL PURI in London
Senior Editor – UK and Associate Publisher
There is a strong current of anger and disbelief on how the desperate ruling Tories, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, are taking their determination to get rid of illegal migrants and asylum seekers, just months before the General Election now being suggested for October or even January 2025.
Only the Prime Minister can clear the air on the election date. He repeatedly plays cat-and-mouse games with the electorate, leading to frustration among many Britons.
In the latest move, the Government is planning to offer a £3,000 incentive to every illegal migrant to leave the United Kingdom of their own volition.
Call it an incentive, dangling a carrot in front of those with no legal right to live in the United Kingdom. Critics are translating it as bribery.
They are concerned that the Government will dip into public funds to finance these pay-outs.
It’s the Government’s prerogative to admit who they wish to admit legally into this country as defined within the laws. Still, critics say offering a ‘bribe’ to leave the country takes not only the biscuit but the entire bakery.
Some Britons find it hard to swallow this incentive as it probably spreads the wrong message: It pays to enter the UK illegally. At least, you will be despatched with a £3,000 sweetener.
Just who will grab the very much depends on the greed of the willing victims. But the astute among these illegals will use their intelligence that converting the £3,000 is only a few months of income.
Unless they desperately need the money back home, few will step forward.
Could it be a wasted exercise?
On the other hand, if anyone were to accept this sweetener, there would be nothing for them to stop entering the UK under a different identity and again walk back with the £3,000, which could be a cash drain on the taxpayer.
They would be smart enough to think that if they shunned the £3,000 bribe, they would earn much more in this country even if they were to do cash-in-hand tasks with no income tax to pay.
Some would have the potential to earn thousands of pounds more until they are caught in immigration raids, detained, and deported.
To them, the £3,000 would be chicken feed. They dream of building mansions in their home country with money earned in the UK.
The Immigration plan and the £3,000 inducement is the Tories’ latest gimmick, as the opposition describes.
Sunak’s Rwanda asylum policy is in tatters. It will be very costly when the final figures are totted up.
Critics say this is a scandal of gigantic proportions, and the ruling Party is trying desperately to hide the billions in losses.
How much will the Rwanda plan cost?
The final cost of the plan could reach up to £3.9 billion over five years, according to an estimate published by the Institute for Public Policy Research recently.
The Rwanda Bill is listing aimlessly in the Parliament waters, being shunted from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, where it has been shredded with ten amendments and shunted back to the House of Commons for further debate next month.
A strange game of parliamentary ping-pong is being played at the speed of a tortoise between the House of Commons and the House of Lords on the Rwanda Bill.
There seems to be a guerrilla war between the two Houses of Parliament; as of the ten Lord’s amendments, the lower House, the Commons, voted to reinstate seven.
The opposition from the House of Lords has shaken Sunak’s self-confidence, but he appears determined to see it turned into law.
He wants to ensure the first deportation flights carrying deported asylum seekers to Rwanda commence by June.
Sunak’s fellow MPs almost seem convinced the Rwanda Asylum Bill will collapse or be watered down, losing its sting.
One cannot rule out the stubbornness of the Lords if they still raise objections to the severity of the Bill.
This Bill is scheduled to return to the Lords on 15 April after the MPs return from their Easter break.
But, whatever the politics of this Rwanda Bill, what is undeniable is its draconian nature if it becomes law.
For Rishi Sunak, it seems he is worried about his failure to turn the Rwanda Bill into law with the continued checks and balances from the House of Lords still coming in the way.
Not so long ago, there was a time when Tory faithful were continually squawking that the House of Lords should be abolished.
They argued that the higher chamber of the Parliament was a waste of resources, with its members in Dad’s Army or geriatrics with one foot in the grave.
They contended that the Lords were half asleep most of the time, unable to keep touch with the world around them.
But if that were to happen, the House of Commons would be the final judge, jury, and executioner of all the laws without the checks and balances of the learned Lords, who are there because of their experience with life.
Many critics dismiss calls for the abolition of the Lords as a cheap political ploy which would make the House of Commons, the lower chamber, the dragon that democracy does not want.
The opposition Labour Party dismissed the Rwanda Bill as a gimmick and vowed to abolish it if it ever became law when they came to power.
Looking at the overall picture of the current state of the Tory Party, there is growing resentment in the ranks over how the current government administration is run.
At a time when all rank and file should have stood behind Rishi Sunak and returned the Party to power, there was a growing movement to oust him even before the election.
It was reported that a pincer movement on the right-wing fringe within the Tory Party demanded that Sunak be replaced as Party leader and prime minister before the elections.
What is the basis of their cynical thinking? Sunak has failed as a leader. His Party faithful believe that his obsession with the immigration policy and stopping the boats has tilted the Party’s performance so severely that other aspects of the economy are receiving scant attention.
Now and then, the British public is told that the inflation rate has gone down, but these figures, true as they may be, do not reflect in the wallets of the Britons.
In the past, Sunak’s claims of the inflation going down were challenged by sections of the Government as being economical with the reality.
Sunak’s claims of Home Office asylum cases being processed speedily were also challenged,
Thus has given growth to a group of Tories who have decided Sunak must go before the elections. They continue to suggest possible replacements, such as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned as an MP after he was forced to quit.
Other names suggested are Kemi Badenoch and, lately, Penny Mordaunt, who at one time stood in the Tory leadership race contenders but had to give way to Rishi Sunak.
Putting it plainly, too many chiefs want to see Sunak out of their way and grab the key to 10 Downing Street.
The bottom line remains: even if Rishi Sunak was shown the door, are any people capable of taking over from him in a Party so torn with differences? Who can unite the Party?
Even though the opposition Labour Party firmly believes that it will win the forthcoming General Election, doubts are creeping up because a new beast has entered the ring – the Reform UK led by Nigel Farage, a career broadcaster and politician, whose ambitious boat has steered through various political tributaries.
He was the leader of the right-wing populist political Party, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which raised serious concerns and capitalised on rising immigration. It nearly nudged the principles of Enoch Powell, a one-time Tory or Conservative Party politician who attracted global attention for his blatant racism.
Powell gave that controversial Rivers of Blood Speech on 29 April 1968, blasting rising immigration mainly from the New Commonwealth African and Asian nations and the anti-discrimination legislation Race Relations Bill, which attracted criticism from his own Tory Party and led to the Tiry Prime Minister at the time, Edward Heath, dismissing him from his Government.
The Party’s stand endeared UKIP to millions of white Britons who liked its far right and anti-Islam message and supported it.
Its primary thrust was on Brexit as Farage and his fellow party members worked tirelessly to get Britain out of the European Union.
Farage is known for eccentric views, and his colleagues deem him too intellectual and dictatorial. He rejected multiculturalism, which hinged on Enoch Powell’s take on racism.
Despite being a Eurosceptic, Farage represented this country as a European Parliament member (MEP).
Early polls indicate that Reform UK is gaining a foothold with the traditional Tory voters exasperated by the failures of their Party. Some would cross the floor to the Labour Party.
Still, in the end, observers believe that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK may act as a spoiler but, in all probability, will bite into the two main parties’ votes, leaving them with a shaky foothold in Whitehall.
It may not come as a surprise if there is a hung parliament with Reform UK if it attracts millions of disgruntled Tory voters, as some believe there will be a severe contest of who would lead the Government.
Hung parliaments often cause many difficulties to the leadership in Downing Street as they must accept the views of both the parties holding power. That is a far-fetched idea now but a headache for the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, whose side is showing concern about the rising influence of the Reform UK Party.
It is, without doubt, going to gnaw into the votes initially meant to go to either of the two main parties – the Tories and the Labour.
Only last week, the Home Office
announced that 514 people crossed the English Channel in small boats in just a day on 20 March.
Ten boats were intercepted, making the crossing from France, believed to be the highest daily crossing so far.
In just 22 days of March, 1,988 people arrived in boats, according to the BBC’s figures.
Shockingly, 4,043 people have crossed by boats in just three months – compared with the equivalent period last year of 3,683.
These are just the recorded crossings; how many unrecorded crossings happen in unpoliced areas is worth considering.
It’s only logical to think that the UK cannot police every inch of the entire stretch of the British Isles.
It is troubling to many observers that Rishi Sunak has put all his weight around slashing the number of migrants in his quest to deliver his five-point plan.
The cost-of-living crisis remains unsolved, the rising cost of council taxes, which peaked at £2,000 per annum this year, remains unchecked, and the energy cost remains high; what do the British public get in return for paying their taxes?
As for the Tories, according to the polls, their popularity is rapidly going downhill.
A strong likelihood and fears among them are that their game is over, and they will be wiped out in the elections unless there is a miracle and a turnaround in their political fortunes.
More than 60 MPs, including former Prime Minister Dame Theresa May, have announced they will not stand for elections.
There are also defections, with disgruntled Tories moving to the Reform UK. More defections could follow soon from both Tories and Labour.
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