British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Saturday that he is scrapping a contentious Conservative policy of deporting asylum-seekers to Rwanda, promising to fulfill on voters’ mandate for reform.
According to him, “The Rwanda scheme was dead and buried before it started”.
The announcement was widely anticipated because Starmer stated that he would abandon the scheme, which had cost hundreds of millions of dollars but never took off.
The news conference came after his first Cabinet meeting, as the new government faces the tremendous challenge of resolving a slew of domestic issues while also appealing to a public weary of years of austerity, political upheaval, and a wounded economy.
Starmer welcomed the new ministers around the table at 10 Downing St., saying it had been the honor of his life to be asked by King Charles III to form a government in a ceremony that officially elevated him to prime minister.
Starmer’s Labour Party delivered the biggest blow to the Conservatives in their two-century history Friday in a landslide victory on a platform of change.
Among a raft of problems they face are boosting a sluggish economy, fixing a broken health care system, and restoring trust in government.
In his first remarks as prime minister Friday after the “kissing of hands” ceremony with Charles at Buckingham Palace, Starmer said he would get to work immediately, though he cautioned it would take some time to show results.,
“Changing a country is not like flicking a switch,” he said as enthusiastic supporters cheered him outside his new official residence at 10 Downing. “This will take a while. But have no doubt that the work of change begins — immediately.”
Starmer singled out several major issues Friday, including fixing the revered but crippled National Health Service and securing its borders, alluding to a larger global problem in Europe and the United States of absorbing an influx of migrants fleeing war, poverty, drought, heat waves, and floods caused by climate change.
Conservatives struggled to slow the tide of migrants across the English Channel, failing to fulfill ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s promise to “stop the boats,” which resulted in the contentious plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
