Cummings shares his ‘real solution’ to migrant crisis as ex-No10 aide blasts Boris Johnson over ‘fake’ Rwanda plan
Dominic Cummings has revealed what he believes is the “real solution” to the migrant crisis and taken a swipe at his former boss and ally Boris Johnson.
Cummings, 52, worked with Johnson in Downing Street for just 15 months before spectacularly walking out of No10 clutching his box of items.
The former Vote Leave campaigner has made a number of recent interventions and even addressed the UK’s Channel crossing crisis.
Channel crossings have almost hit 17,000 in 2024 so far, with 29,437 making the perilous 21-mile journey last year.
A record-breaking 45,774 migrants also crossed the Channel in 2023.
Explaining his solution to the crisis, Cummings told podcaster Chris Williamson: “The actual solution to this, I went through in 2020, I went through it with the navy in terms of operational methods of how you actually stop the boats physically and I went through it legally to figure out the legal side of it.
“In a nutshell, you cannot stop the legal side of it unless you at least amend the Human Rights Act and you’re prepared to tell the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that we’re not going to enforce various judgements.
“That is fundamentally the only way you’re going to get legal control over the illegal immigration and asylum system.
“What Boris does is, he doesn’t want to do this, so he creates this ludicrous policy of flying all these people to Rwanda.
“Tory MPs, being what they are, think that sounds like a good idea but the important thing to realise is that Boris intended that as a fake thing, rather than solving the problem.”
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Cummings was far from complimentary about the Conservative Party following its worst defeat since 1906 on July 4.
He said: “The good thing about it is that it’s clear to everyone what has happened, right?
“Because of Brexit, there is democratic accountability. Nobody can blame the EU anymore.
“The British Government sabotaged border control and sabotaged having a say in immigration policy deliberately.
“That’s what the Tories did and everyone was clear about it. It’s sort of stupid and insane in one way but at least, because of Brexit, everyone knows exactly who to blame and quite rightly they gave the Tories the kicking they deserved.”
Rishi Sunak was determined to push forward Johnson’s Rwanda plan but faced a number of legal and political obstacles.
The former Prime Minister, who failed to send more than a handful of migrants packing, faced down a backbench rebellion and saw judicial hurdles crop up.
Sunak and Johnson were keen to claim the Rwanda plan was a deterrent to those embarking on the perilous 21-mile journey.
Tories have decided to put pressure on Labour after Sir Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper almost instantly scrapped the plan.
Labour will instead look to launch the Border Security Command, with £75million of funds diverted from the Rwanda scheme.
Cooper also put forward new legislation which appeared to suggest the UK could process asylum claims for up to 90,000 illegal immigrants.
Cummings, who revealed he is mulling over launching a “political campaign” to heap further pressure on the so-called establishment, believes Labour will do “a bit more” of what the Vote Leave campaign intended.
“They’ll do a bit better on planning laws, for example,” he said. “It’ll become a bit easier to build stuff. They’ll be a bit less casually, ignorantly vandalistic to science and technology than the Tories were.”
However, despite warning the Tories face years in the wilderness, Cummings slammed Starmer over what could happen over the next few years.
He claimed: “There’ll be some improvements of Labour over the Tories here and there but the picture generally will be pretty grim.
“Not as grim as inside the EU but I think it’ll be depressing if the system is left to itself.”
Cummings’s comments come after his relationship switched from key ally to unrelenting critic.
The longstanding Eurosceptic describes the former Prime Minister as a trolley and claims Johnson was not cut out for No10.
GB News has approached Boris Johnson for comment