Tories hit out at mounting cost of Rwanda plan as No 10 blames Braverman

Tories have condemned the Government’s handling of the Rwanda asylum scheme after it emerged the cost of the policy has doubled despite it failing to deport a single person.

It comes as Downing Street insisted Suella Braverman was behind the decision to increase the cash paid to Kigali for the scheme from £140m to £300m.

In a move that is likely to deepen divisions between Rishi Sunak and sections of his own MPs, Downing Street held the former home secretary responsible for paying the additional cash to Kigali during her time running the Home Office.

The department’s permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft disclosed on Thursday evening that the cost of the scheme had increased by £100m back in April, with a further £50m due to be paid next year.

Asked by reporters who signed off the additional payments, Mr Sunak’s deputy spokeswoman said: “The home secretary. It is an operational decision to release funding under the MoU [memorandum of understanding].”

Pressed on whether the Prime Minister had a hand in signing off the extra cash, the spokeswoman added: “No. It’s part of the existing MoU. So it’s an operational decision for the home secretary to sign off. That’s the usual process.”

The letter also revealed that the money was ordered to be paid via a ministerial direction, which means senior civil servants had initially refused to sign off the cash, due to concerns over value for money.

Some Tories have attacked the additional costs, with one party activist telling i that the “substantial amount of taxpayer money” being sent to Rwanda was “frustrating”.

“It adds to a sense that the Government has lost control of the narrative and is desperate to throw any amount of money at the problem to regain it,” one Tory said.

A senior Conservative MP lamented the decision to spend more money on policy that has yet to send a single flight to Kigali, adding that it “doesn’t sound like the best value for money, does it?”

Opposition parties have reacted furiously to the disclosure, with the Liberal Democrats branding it an “unforgivable waste of taxpayers’ money”.

“The fact that this Government is content to squander millions on this totally unworkable white elephant of a policy tells you everything you need to know about their priorities,” Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said.

Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Tories had “wasted an astronomical £290m of taxpayers’ money on a failing scheme”.

“How many more blank cheques will Rishi Sunak write before the Tories come clean about this scheme being a total farce?”

Sir Matthew Rycroft has been summoned to appear before the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, a day before MPs vote on the Government’s Rwanda legislation.

“Full and frank answers” on the costings of the deportation scheme are expected from him, Home Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson and Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier wrote in a letter to the top civil servant.

They said they “would have expected more transparency” from him previously and that they saw “no reason” why he did not disclose extra payments to Kigali when he gave evidence to their committees over the past few weeks.

“Given the high profile of this scheme, which is now subject to a major piece of legislation, we expect quarterly updates to be provided to Parliament from now on,” they said.