Watch: Sunak faces Starmer at PMQs after government paid asylum seeker £3,000 to relocate to Rwanda

Watch as Rishi Sunak faces Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, 1 May, after the government paid an asylum seeker £3,000 to relocate to Rwanda.

The failed asylum claimant became the first person to be paid under a voluntary return scheme running alongside the government’s controversial deportation agreement with the country.

He is understood not to be from Rwanda originally.

He is also understood to now be in Rwanda after his commercial flight left on Monday evening, The Sun reported.

Labour has criticised the move as an expensive attempt by the Conservative Party to gain votes ahead of Thursday’s local elections, in which the Tories are expected to endure heavy losses.

“Stopping the boats” is one of the prime minister’s five pledges to the public.

Kemi Badenoch said the decision of the failed asylum seeker to voluntarily relocate to Rwanda shows it is a safe country.

The business and trade secretary told Times Radio: “One of the big arguments about this scheme was Rwanda wasn’t a safe country, and actually people are volunteering to go there.”