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Sunak put the Rwanda deal on the ballot paper yesterday by saying he was the only leader who would ‘get those flights off’.
Speaking on the first full day of the election campaign, the Prime Minister warned that Sir Keir Stamer would scrap the scheme to remove Channel migrants to Africa, and ‘people will keep coming’.
But in a blow to Tory hopes of a direct poll boost from the Government’s deportation programme, Mr Sunak revealed that the first flights will not take off until after the election on July 4
The PM said: ‘If I’m elected, we will get the flights off. The choice here is clear.
‘If you think stopping the boats is important, and you think, like I do, that you need a deterrent to do that, then I’m the only one that’s going to deliver that.’
Pressed on whether removals could take place before the country goes to the polls, he replied: ‘No, after the election. The preparation work has already gone on.’
One former minister described the decision as a ‘disaster’, adding: ‘Why on earth is he calling an election before he can deliver on the one issue where there is a really clear dividing line with Labour?’
Sir Keir accused the PM of deliberately calling the election early to avoid the scheme being proved a failure.
Speaking on a visit to Gillingham in Kent, the Labour leader said: ‘I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election.’
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the failure to get flights going before the election showed the Rwanda scheme was a ‘complete con’.
Ms Cooper confirmed the scheme will be abandoned immediately if Labour wins the election, saying: ‘We won’t do it.’
Tory strategists believe the small-boats crisis will be a key dividing line at the election. One said: ‘The choice at this election is flights off with the Conservatives or flights stopped with Keir Starmer.’
Mr Sunak appeared to confirm the strategy, saying the ‘bold’ Rwanda scheme was ‘a great thing to be talking about at this election’.
The PM claimed Labour would do ‘absolutely nothing about it’ and would ‘offer an amnesty to illegal migrants’.
He said 15 European countries ‘agree with my approach’ and were investigating similar schemes, adding: ‘The only person who doesn’t is Keir Starmer.’
Mr Sunak added: ‘We are leading the charge with partners across the continent to meet the challenges caused by intolerable levels of illegal migration.
‘Our disruption of the cruel trade of criminal gangs, together with our Rwanda scheme, are part of a deterrent to stop illegal migration once and for all.’
The Rwanda scheme has been subject to multiple delays since it was first announced two years ago, with both Labour and the courts acting to frustrate it.
But some Tory MPs, including former home secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, believe Mr Sunak made a serious error in not toughening up legislation to avoid court challenges.
One Tory source suggested that Mr Sunak had brought forward the election following warnings from government lawyers that the flights would face further legal challenges.
The source said: ‘The courts have just started accepting systemic challenges on the legislation, which they now realise will ground everything.
‘If that unravelled in slower time and the boats keep coming then the PM would sink even lower in the polls. It’s a basket case, but they put themselves in this position because of the decisions they took.’