Keir Starmer says Tory plans ‘up in the air or in the bin’, with proposals to end no-fault evictions also likely to be dropped
Rishi Sunak has dropped flagship policies on deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda and banning smoking for young people on the first full day of his election campaign, leaving his legacy increasingly threadbare.
As Sunak set off on a whistle stop tour of the UK, heading for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland over 24 hours, he insisted the Rwanda plan would go ahead if he was elected as “the flights are booked for July, the airfields are on standby”. Another key plank of Sunak’s premiership, a promise to ban young people from ever being able to buy tobacco legally, was also left in doubt after it was not mentioned among the final business in the House of Commons before the election.
“Although what he said was good, what isn’t so good is that he can’t commit to it being totally done and dusted by the next election – and then later that day he called the election.” Labour has indicated it would introduce the bill “as soon as possible”. One former minister said: “If the PM truly believed in the plan, which ministers have spent so much time getting right, he would have seen it through, whatever it took. Instead it will be difficult if not impossible to defend because it has not been shown to work.”Another Conservative said Sunak did not want to take on the European court of human rights, which stopped the last deportation flight to Rwanda in 2022 by issuing a rule 39 injunction.
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