Not Prepared To Continue With Gimmicks”: New UK PM To Scrap Rwanda Plan

London: 

Newly elected UK prime minister Keir Starmer on Saturday began his first full day in charge declaring the ousted Tories’ plan to deport migrants to Rwanda “dead and buried” and pledging growth as his government’s “number one mission”.

The Labour leader on Friday won a landslide election victory bringing to a close 14 years of Conservative rule.

He said he was “restless for change” and that his party had received a “mandate to do politics differently”.

Keir Starmer started the day with a first meeting of his cabinet including Britain’s first woman finance minister Rachel Reeves and new foreign minister David Lammy.

“We have a huge amount of work to do, so now we get on with our work,” he told his top team to applause and smiles around the cabinet table.

At a news conference afterwards he said he would not be proceeding with former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial scheme to tackle rising small boat arrivals on England’s southern coast by deporting migrants to Rwanda.

“The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started… I’m not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don’t act as a deterrent,” he told reporters at his 10 Downing Street office.