Politics
Kate Plummer
Jun 30, 2023
content.jwplatform.com
Question Time has delivered a damning verdict on the government's controversial Rwanda scheme.
Asked by presenter Fiona Bruce asked who backed the controversial plan last night, not a single person put their hand up despite the majority of the audience being Tory voters - that says it all.
Bruce said: “We’re very careful how we select our audiences here and I’m not trying to overstate the importance - this is not a YouGov poll.
“But what I’m seeing here is that even though we have more people who voted Conservative than any other single party here, is there anyone here who supports sending people to Rwanda?”
When no one in the Exeter audience put their hand up, panel member and TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall shouted “good on you."
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Bruce then asked social care minister Helen Whately, who was also on the panel to respond.
She replied: “This is a very hard problem to solve and I think most of us feel that we want to be welcoming people and understand that people have made hard and difficult journeys to try and come to the UK and choose to get into a small boat.”
It came on the same day that the Court of Appeal ruled that the policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims processed was illegal.
Nevertheless, prime minister Rishi Sunak has said the government will appeal against the court’s ruling.
He said: “The policy of this government is very simple, it is this country – and your government – who should decide who comes here, not criminal gangs. And I will do whatever is necessary to make that happen."
You have the people behind you, Sunak... not.
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)