Britain's Starmer declares Rwanda deportation plan 'dead and buried': summary

What we know

• Britain's new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, announced on Saturday that he would scrap the controversial plan to deport thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda. This marks his first major policy declaration since winning a landslide election victory. 
• The plan, initially introduced by the previous Conservative government in 2022, aimed to deter asylum seekers from arriving in Britain by sending them to the East African nation. 
• However, no migrant was ever deported under this scheme due to prolonged legal challenges.
• Starmer, who achieved one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern British history, now faces significant challenges, including improving public services and revitalising the weak economy. 
• During his first press conference as prime minister, held at Downing Street, Starmer was asked numerous questions about his plans to address the nation's problems but provided few specific details.

What they said

At the press conference, Starmer emphasised that the Rwanda deportation policy would be abandoned, stating that it would have removed only about 1% of asylum seekers and failed as a deterrent. "The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started. It's never been a deterrent. I'm not prepared to continue with gimmicks that don't act as a deterrent," Reuters reports. Starmer asserted. He added, "We're going to have to take the tough decisions and take them early, and we will. We will do that with a raw honesty." Starmer clarified that this approach did not imply any unexpected tax decisions that had not been previously discussed.