Rishi Sunak has a couple of months left to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and save this country from a socialist Labour government.
But if he thinks getting the Rwanda bill through parliament is going to be his saviour, I suggest he's very wrong.
I frankly couldn't care less if the Prime Minister does manage to get planes off the ground with illegal migrants on board.
Despite what he says, it's not going to be a deterrent.
Ben Leo says migrants in Calais think Britain is a laughing stock
GB NEWS
Migrants themselves waiting in Calais to cross the channel have said as much.
They think we're a laughing stock.
So not only will Rwanda not stop the boats, but it's going to cost a hell of a lot of taxpayer money too.
Your money for the privilege. We've already paid Rwanda £240 million up to the end of last year, and the National Audit Office says a total payment of at least 370 million will be sent over five years.
If more than 300 people were sent to Rwanda, the UK would pay a one off fee of £120 million, no less, to boost the Rwandan economy with further payments of 20 grand per individual relocated.
Some 6000 people have already crossed the channel this year in small boats, at points up to 500 people a day.
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to get his Rwanda plan to workParliament TVSo you do the math. It's time to get real. The Rwanda plan is nothing but a distraction, a waste of taxpayer cash, and a total waste of time.
So I make the case that if the government was serious about stopping the boats, they'd take a leaf from our friends in Australia who solved the problem overnight. In the mid 2000s, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott bravely committed to intercepting boats in the water. And guess what? He swooped to election victory for his efforts.
So turning boats back doesn't involve tying a rope to dinghies and dragging them back through the water.
The Aussies transferred migrants into extremely safe, lifeboat style vessels and escorted them to their point of departure or offshore processing sites.
We are legally allowed to do this under international maritime law. Greece did it. Italy did it. And even if that wasn't the case, we should still do it regardless, in the name of national security and most importantly, stopping the needless deaths of desperate migrants at the hands of cruel smuggling gangs.
I already know what critics watching this are going to say. Oh, the French won't allow that. But what's more important?
Securing our borders, protecting national security and saving lives, or our relationship with the French, who, by the way, are taking hundreds of millions of pounds to stop the boats but doing more with it.
Time is running out. So it's time for the Prime Minister to get serious.
