New U.K. Prime Minister Starmer says controversial Rwanda deportation plan is 'dead and buried'

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on July 6 that he is scrapping a controversial Conservative policy to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

“The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started,” Mr. Starmer said in his first news conference. “It's never acted as a deterrent. Almost the opposite.” The move was one of Mr. Starmer's first acts in office, though it was widely expected. He had said during his campaign that he would ditch the plan that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but never taken flight.

Also read: Explained | Why has densely populated Rwanda agreed to the U.K.’s plan to deport migrants?

Mr. Starmer made the announcement after holding his first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing St., the day after his Labour Party's landslide victory overturned 14 years of Conservative rule.

The Rwanda plan was one of the showcase policies of former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to try to curb migrants from making dangerous English Channel crossings.

But it was beset with challenges over human rights issues and never managed to deport a single person despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars in a pact with the east African nation.

Suella Braverman, a Conservative hard liner on immigration who is a possible contender to replace Mr. Sunak as party leader, was critical of Mr. Starmer's anticipated plan to end the Rwanda deal.

“Years of hard work, acts of Parliament, millions of pounds been spent on a scheme which had it been delivered properly would have worked,” she said Saturday before he made the announcement.