Sir Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, has just started giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, and within minutes he was struggling badly. Here are the takeaways from the early exchanges.
Rycroft implied that the government may be giving more money to Rwanda this year – even though £140m has been given to the country, and not a single person has been deported there yet. The Labour chair of the committee, Diana Johnson, started by asking Rycroft to say how much money the government was giving to Rwanda under the scheme. He said Rwanda had already had £120m under the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) and £20m as an upfront payment for the costs of housing asylum seekers. He said the deal anticipated additional payments each year. But he refused to say if further payments were being made, telling Johnson that ministers had decided not to give a “running commentary”. Instead the Home Office will reveal the figure in the next set of annual accounts published next year, he said.
But Rycroft refused to say what those costs might be. When it was put to him that the Home Office itself published an impact assessment putting the cost per person at £169,000, Rycroft accepted that was the figure in the document, but he said the Home Office did not accept it as the accurate figure.
Key events
After Lee Anderson questioned Matthew Rycroft, Tim Loughton, a Conservative, took him back to the cost of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
He asked why Rycroft said he did not recognise the £169,000 per person figure when it was from a Home Office document.
Rycroft claimed he had not said he did not recognise the figure.
Loughton told him that is exactly what he said.
Rycroft said that what he meant was that the figure was based on estimates.
Lee Anderson, the Tory deputy chair and a member of the home affairs committee, asked Sir Matthew Rycroft about the clause in the Rwanda deal saying that, as part of the agreement, the UK might take some asylum seekers from Rwanda. He asked how many people might come to Britain.
Rycroft refused to say. He said it was not a one-to-one agreement, and he said the government had “not got a number in mind”. He suggested that the clause was in the agreement so that, if for example someone sought asylum from Rwanda, they would not be returned to the country.
Anderson then asked if the Home Office was working on a “plan B” in case the Rwanda scheme did not work. Rycroft would not use that figure, but he said the government was working on various plans.
Here is the line in the agreement that Anderson was asking about.
The participants will make arrangements for the United Kingdom to resettle a portion of Rwanda’s most vulnerable refugees in the United Kingdom, recognising both participants’ commitment towards providing better international protection for refugees.
At the time the agreement was published, Home Office sources suggested that this clause was referring to cases where refugees might come from Rwanda to the UK in limited circumstances, such as where they might need specialised medical help.
Sir Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, has just started giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, and within minutes he was struggling badly. Here are the takeaways from the early exchanges.
Rycroft implied that the government may be giving more money to Rwanda this year – even though £140m has been given to the country, and not a single person has been deported there yet. The Labour chair of the committee, Diana Johnson, started by asking Rycroft to say how much money the government was giving to Rwanda under the scheme. He said Rwanda had already had £120m under the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) and £20m as an upfront payment for the costs of housing asylum seekers. He said the deal anticipated additional payments each year. But he refused to say if further payments were being made, telling Johnson that ministers had decided not to give a “running commentary”. Instead the Home Office will reveal the figure in the next set of annual accounts published next year, he said.
But Rycroft refused to say what those costs might be. When it was put to him that the Home Office itself published an impact assessment putting the cost per person at £169,000, Rycroft accepted that was the figure in the document, but he said the Home Office did not accept it as the accurate figure.
Good morning. It’s environment day on the No 10 grid and, ahead of the Cop28 summit starting in Dubai later this week, Rishi Sunak is announcing some green initiatives. As Helena Horton reports, they include plans to designate a new national park. And, in an article for the Daily Telegraph, Sunak says he will stop councils cutting down trees without consulting residents properly.
But, on net zero, Sunak has been strongly criticised by Theresa May, the former prime minister. As PM May legislated to put the 2050 net zero target into law and, speaking to the Times, she said she was opposed to the plan in the king’s speech to legislate to ensure new North Sea oil and gas licences are issued every year. Sunak has said he wants to “max out” these resources. But May said:
I take a different view from the government on the oil and gas licences. This is about [a] phase-out and, ultimately, that is what it has to be about in terms of fossil fuels …
Obviously, energy security for us is important but … new oil and gas licences only provide for energy security if all that energy is sold into the UK and, actually, it will be sold on the world market, so I think there are some questions around that.
No 10 may want it to be environment day, but at PMQs other issues are likely to dominate. The gap between what Tory backbenchers want Sunak to do about cutting immigration, and what he seems likely to announce, seems to be growing bigger by the day, and this row is bound to come up. And Sunak is still facing widespread criticism over his decision to snub the Greek PM.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is at the Nato-Ukraine council in Brussels.
9.30am: Sir Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.
10am: Prof Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, resumes giving evidence to the Covid inquiry. Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, is also due to give evidence in the morning.
10am: The OECD publishes its latest economic forecasts.
Noon: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
2pm: Dominic Raab, the former deputy PM, gives evidence to the Covid inquiry.
2.15pm: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about the autumn statement.
Also today Steve Barclay, the environment secretary, is announcing plans to designate a new national park, as part of the government’s response to the Glover review of national parks.
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