Architect of effective small boat control in Australia requests Sir Keir Starmer to revive Rwanda proposal

An expert behind Australia’s effective strategy to reduce small boat incidents encourages Sir Keir Starmer to revive the Rwanda initiative.

Alexander Downer expressed disappointment that the Labour party ended the program and suggested that the Prime Minister should be willing to admit a mistake.

By adopting a similar approach, Australia managed to significantly decrease illegal border crossings from 20,000 in 2014 to almost none, achieved by relocating migrants to Nauru Island.

Ex-foreign minister Mr Downer said: “I regard it as a tragedy that the Rwanda plan became a party political issue.

“The Tories did lots of bad things but that wasn’t one.

“It would have worked assuming the legal issues could be properly addressed — and they were being.

“So the easiest thing for them to do would be to eat a bit of political humble pie and reinstitute the Rwanda scheme.”

Sir Keir branded it a £700million “gimmick” and instead vowed to focus on smashing the gangs behind the Channel crossings.

But small boat arrivals are about 40 per cent higher on Labour’s watch, with more than 40,000 coming here since the election.

Sir Keir has said he is open to using offshore processing if there is evidence it works.