‘Stop the boats’: Rishi Sunak tells MPs there is no firm date to fulfil pledge

During his appearance before the liaison committee today, Rishi Sunak was asked about the timescale for delivery on his “stop the boats” pledge, which he made at the start of the year.

Dame Diana Johnson, the chair of the home affairs select committee, asked the prime minister: “When will you stop the boats?”.

Rishi Sunak responded: “Well, the first thing to say is we have made progress, and that is that the numbers this year are down by a third, which is considerable progress”.

Pressed further, the PM added: “Well, there isn’t a firm date on this, because I’ve always said from the beginning you…”

“You said you were going to stop the boats”, Dame Diana interjected.

Sunak responded: “We will keep going until we do. This is not one of these things, where there is a precise date”.

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