Rishi Sunak press conference: what time is Prime Minister's Rwanda speech, what did he say?

Rishi Sunak is set to give a speech on his controversial Rwanda Bill ahead of a battle with peers to pass the legislation.

The House of Lords has continued to push for amendments which would stop Afghan interpreters and other UK employees from being deported, as well as getting the independent monitoring committee to declare the east African country safe. This has delayed the Prime Minister’s key legislation, and he has threatened to force both houses to sit into the night to get it passed.

The government wants to sent asylum seekers to Rwanda to act as a deterrent to those crossing the Channel on small boats. However the policy has got stuck in the courts, while charities have argued that it is ineffective and cruel. Sunak hopes to pass a bill, in which Parliament will unilaterally declare Rwanda safe.

However the House of Lords has continued to push for amendments. Leading lawyer and independent crossbencher Lord Carlile of Berriew said the government’s current Rwanda Bill is “ill-judged, badly drafted, inappropriate” and “illegal in current UK and international law”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is, in my view, the most inexplicable and insensitive day I’ve experienced in nearly 40 years in one or other House of Parliament.” “What Rishi Sunak is asking Parliament to do is say that an untruth is a truth,” he added.

“The Supreme Court held, for the time being at least, that Rwanda is not a safe country and it is still the case that Rwanda has not implemented all the promises it made in the treaty it reached with the United Kingdom.”

What time is Rishi Sunak’s press conference?

Rishi Sunak will chair his illegal migration operations committee in No10 Downing Street, before giving a press conference to reporters in No9 at around 10.30am. NationalWorld will be in attendance and bring the latest updates and analysis.

What did Rishi Sunak say in speech?

Rishi Sunak told reporters that the first flight carrying asylum seekers would leave for Rwanda in the next 10 to 12 weeks, adding that an airfield is on standby and commercial charter plans have been booked to carry asylum seekers. He said in his speech: “Now of course that is later than we wanted. But we have always been clear that processing will take time and if Labour peers had not spent weeks holding up the Bill in the House of Lords to try to block these flights altogether, we would have begun this process weeks ago.”

He added that he vowed to end to parliamentary deadlock to ensure that the government sticks to this timeline, saying “enough is enough”. Sunak said: “No more prevarication, no more delay. Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes. No ifs, no buts. These flights are going to Rwanda.” He labelled the plan an “indispensable deterrent so that we finally break the business model of the criminal gangs and save lives”. The Prime Minister is optimistic that he will be able to fight against the pushback from the House of Lords, stating: “Starting from the moment that the Bill passes, we will begin the process of removing those identified for the first flight. We have prepared for this moment.”

Sunak refused to say how many people would be expected to leave on flights to Rwanda, but said that there would be a “regular rhythm” of “multiple flights a month through the summer and beyond”. He also told reporters that operational details would not be disclosed in a bid to stop the “loud minority of people who will do absolutely anything and everything to disrupt this policy from succeeding”.

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.