Business secretary defends move, saying it ‘puts to bed myth that Rwanda is not a safe place’

Good morning. When the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill was in the House of Lords before Easter, a mysterious delay crept in. There was plenty of time to get it passed before the Easter recess, but the government held it back, without giving a good reason, and even when parliament returned, the government did not make passing the law a matter of urgency. It only cleared parliament, and got royal assent, last week.

And now it is fairly clear why. With the bill on the statute book, we are seeing a flurry of Rwanda-related activity from the government – which, by miraculous coincidence, seems to be turning up in the papers just days and hours before people in England vote in the local elections.

The Tories are so desperate to get any flight off to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go.

British taxpayers aren’t just forking out £3,000 for a volunteer to board a plane, they are also paying Rwanda to provide him with free board and lodgings for the next five years. This extortionate pre-election gimmick is likely to be costing on average £2m per person.

This is cynical nonsense from a Conservative party that is about to take a drubbing at the local elections. Paying someone to go to Rwanda highlights just how much of a gimmick and farce their plan is.

This is somebody who has actually volunteered to go to Rwanda, which puts to bed this nonsensical myth that Rwanda was not a safe place.

It is. People go on holiday there. I know somebody who’s having a very lovely gap year there. We need to move past a lot of those myths, which are actually just disparaging about an African country.

There is no cost free option, that is the truth of it. It’s better this way than for him to be in the UK, either claiming benefits or being entitled to things that other people in this country can’t have, which be much more expensive for the taxpayer. But there is no free way to police our borders.

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Brexit and Scottish independence have benefited Rishi Sunak and Humza Yousaf – now both are suffering the consequences

Brexit isn’t working, and there are potholes everywhere. Those are not equivalent challenges. Fresh asphalt heals cracked carriageways in an afternoon. Repairing a fractured continental alliance is the work of a generation. One problem did not cause the other. But they are on the vast continuum of political failure – from global to local – that coincides with 14 years of Conservative rule and for which the party will be punished in local elections on Thursday.

Also this week new customs checks on a range of EU imports are being implemented, throwing a bit more sand in the gears of trade. The measure has been deferred multiple times, and is now being only partially rolled out. The government has held back in tacit recognition that the economic impact is only downside: bureaucracy, queues, disrupted supplies, feeding into higher prices.

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Climate groups and Greens co-leader say climate policies risk being sidelined or buried by SNP

• Next first minister will need centre-left allies, says Scottish Greens’ Harvie

From the collapse of its ambitious climate target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030, to the mothballing of a world-leading deposit return scheme, the much-heralded environmental objectives of the Scottish government appear to be falling apart.

As political opponents gather to exploit the fallout from Humza Yousaf’s departure, amid admissions he mishandled his Green party coalition partners , more long-term but pressing climate and environmental policies risk being sidelined at best, and buried at worst.

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Greens co-leader says SNP will have to do deals with anti-independence Tories unless it keeps his party on side

• ‘There is despair’: fears for Scotland’s green policies as power-sharing ends

The Scottish National party will find it far harder to govern unless the next first minister agrees to work with centre-left parties, a co-leader of the Scottish Greens has said.

The Greens were in a power-sharing deal with the SNP until Humza Yousaf unilaterally ended it last week, precipitating his downfall on Monday .

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On Monday, Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf announced his resignation. What does this mean for the Scottish National party? Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks report

On Thursday, Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, made the unexpected decision to tear up the Bute House agreement. The deal was reached in August 2021, between the former Scottish National party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Green party co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, to encourage cooperation between the two parties.

“In one of the most unexpected twists to this entire saga, and a twist that I don’t believe that Humza would ever have envisaged was realistic, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater made clear that they were prepared to do what was previously unthinkable,” the Guardian’s Scotland editor, Severin Carrell , tells Michael Safi . “And that was back a Scottish Conservative motion of no confidence against Humza Yousaf.”

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Tenants typically asked to pay £1,291 a month outside London and £2,633 in capital but pace of growth is slowing, say analysts

Average private rents in Great Britain have risen to record highs, with annual rental growth in hotspot locations such as Reading and Coventry running at almost 20%.

Data from the property website Rightmove shows that the average advertised rent outside London climbed to a record £1,291 a calendar month in the first quarter of 2024. That is 8.5% higher than a year earlier – a rate of growth well ahead of inflation .

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Previous contest exposed splits on issues such as LGBTQ+ rights and green policy that next leader must tackle

When Humza Yousaf was narrowly elected leader of the SNP last March, it was after a bruising leadership contest that exposed profound divisions in the party over LGBTQ+ rights, Westminster’s veto of Holyrood law, and environmental and economic policy.

Indeed, it could be said the end of the SNP’s partnership with the Greens, and the downward spiral of chaos that ended with Yousaf’s resignation little over a year later, was telegraphed by the fault lines that emerged back then, setting the scene for the myriad conflicts that Yousaf was forced to manage – and ultimately failed to resolve – as leader.

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John Swinney emerges as favourite to become leader of party hit by series of damaging crises

Humza Yousaf has quit as Scotland’s first minister to clear the way for a new leader capable of giving the Scottish National party stability after a series of damaging crises.

During a dramatic day largely orchestrated by party managers, Yousaf announced he would step down as first minister just as a veteran former leader, John Swinney, quickly emerged as the favourite to succeed him.

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