Face it, Rishi, you can’t bribe every asylum seeker with £3,000 and a free house

Far from the Rwanda plan being a deterrent for migrants to travel to the UK, the bizarre story of the first man to be deported makes it look more like a stunt to win a sizeable wad of cash and a place to stay while you ponder what to do next, writes Sean O’Grady

The voters remain mostly of the view that Sunak’s Rwanda plan is a bit of a gimmick (PA Wire)

You may remember that a couple of years ago, the then home secretary Suella Braverman, sounding like a breathless teen at a Taylor Swift concert, declared that: “I would love to have a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda, that’s my dream, it’s my obsession … [doing so by Christmas 2022] would be amazing, but if I’m honest I think it will take longer. We’ve got to come out of the legal dispute we are currently embroiled in.”

She was right about the last bit – but you can’t help thinking that our beleaguered prime minister, facing ritual humiliation in the local elections, might also have found a bit of publicity about the Rwanda scheme quite a useful boost to his increasingly incredible claims that he “has a plan”. One that works, that is.

Yet now, despite finally sending the first long-awaited flight to Rwanda on Monday evening (and with it, its solitary migrant passenger), there is no picture of the failed asylum seeker on the front of the Telegraph – or anywhere else, for that matter. It is the first time the UK government has ever relocated a failed asylum seeker to a third country – and yet the world’s TV crews weren’t invited to the historic event. There are no TikToks of the guy being bundled on board. Where is the pomp? The ceremony?