Letter from London: Why Starmer may regret cancelling the Rwanda Plan

By Simon Danczuk.

Welcome to my first of many columns for The Inspirer news platform. I’ll be here twice a month, sharing my views on what’s going on in the United Kingdom, particularly as it relates to politics, Rwanda and East Africa.

A bit about myself, I’m a former Member of Parliament in the UK and I’m now a business consultant and media commentator. I’ve got strong links with Rwanda because my wife, Coco Danczuk, is from Kigali, and whilst we mainly live in London, we regularly visit. As Coco points out, she’s the city girl, whilst I’m the village boy, because I originally come from a small place, Hapton in Lancashire, just north of Manchester.

One of the biggest issues in the UK at the moment is illegal immigration. With young men, often from the Middle East or parts of Africa, making their way across Europe, they then pay people smugglers to get them across the English Channel, a 22 mile stretch of water between the UK and France, in small dinghies.

Over 50,000 illegal immigrants have entered the UK in this way since Keir Starmer (our Prime Minister) and his Labour Party won the General Election in July 2024.

You might be aware that our previous Conservative Government had what was called the ‘Rwanda Plan’ – an agreement where we could send some of these illegal immigrants to Rwanda because they had no right to be in the UK.

Whilst the courts here frustrated the Plan by stating it was against the rights of foreign nationals due to various international conventions, that was being overcome by changes in UK law. We also know the Plan was having a deterrent effect, even without having sent anyone to Rwanda, because whenever the scheme was highlighted in the media fewer illegal immigrants would make the trip from France. Some even left the UK and travelled on to Ireland.

Before the General Election Starmer, and many of his Labour colleagues, were critical of the Rwanda Plan, saying it was not appropriate and wouldn’t work. Some criticism verged on racism, with derogatory comments about Africa. It showed a complete lack of understanding about Rwanda and the African continent.

On becoming Prime Minister, Starmer immediately cancelled the Rwanda Plan instead of making it work.

We know that the French President, Emmanuel Macron, also didn’t like the Plan and has undoubtedly influenced Starmer. Ironically, only recently the United Nations were praising Rwanda for its work with asylum seekers and refugees, intimating that it’s an ideal place to send undocumented migrants – as reported by The Inspirer here.

By cancelling the Rwanda Plan illegal immigration into the UK has soared and people are getting increasingly angry with Starmer’s Labour Government. More and more protests are taking place outside accommodation where illegal immigrants are living, and the Prime Minister is extremely unpopular.

Opinion polls show the Conservatives and Labour with support from just 15% and 18% of people respectively, whilst a new insurgent political party, Reform UK, are polling 34%.

Led by Nigel Farage, Reform UK has just announced that should they form the next government they will introduce mass deportations of those that came to the UK illegally and will introduce a scheme similar to the Rwanda Plan. Helpfully, the Rwandan Government said in response that they would be open to resurrecting the Plan.

Whilst we are four years away from another General Election, if Starmer and his Labour Government fail to get a grip on illegal immigration they are going to become even more unpopular. With growing unpopularity there is going to be immense pressure on the Prime Minister to resign. Starmer might just regret cancelling Rwanda Plan, let’s see.

Simon Danczuk

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