SATURDAY
June 11 2022 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73807Where the Spanish, French,
Italians and Greeks go on holiday
Insiders’ guide
MAGAZINE
The Prince of Wales has privately
described the government’s policy to
send migrants to Rwanda as “appalling”,
The Times has been told.
Prince Charles is said to be
particularly frustrated at Boris Johnson’s
asylum policy as he is due to represent
the Queen at the Commonwealth
heads of government meeting in Kigali,
the capital of Rwanda, this month.
Migrants who arrive in Britain
illegally face being deported to
Rwanda, more than 4,000 miles away,
under a deal struck by Priti Patel, the
home secretary, in April.
Yesterday Patel overcame an initial
legal challenge to the policy after a
High Court judge ruled that the first
flight due to deport migrants on Tues-
day could go ahead.
A source had heard Charles, 73,
expressing opposition to the policy
several times in private and said he was
particularly uncomfortable about it
amid fears that it would overshadow
the summit on June 23.
“He said he was more than dis-
appointed at the policy,” the source
said. “He said he thinks the gov-
ernment’s whole approach is appalling.
It was clear he was not impressed
with the government’s direction of
travel.”
Clarence House did not deny that
Charles was opposed to the policy but
insisted that he had not tried to influ-
ence the government. A spokesman
said: “We would not comment on
supposed anonymous private conver-
sations with the Prince of Wales, except
to restate that he remains politically
neutral. Matters of policy are decisions
for government.”
The High Court ruling yesterday
came despite the UN’s refugee agency
backing calls to halt the flight on the
grounds that it breached Britain’s
international legal obligations.
Last-minute legal challenges could
still halt the deportation on Tuesday
but Downing Street is determined that
the first flight will leave before Johnson
travels to Kigali for the meeting.
The government views the policy as
crucial in deterring Channel crossings.
More than 10,000 migrants have
crossed this year, a figure that was not
reached until August last year.
Although Charles has spoken out on
a wide range of issues over the decades,
his public interventions on controversial
topics have become far fewer in recent
years. However, his remarks on Rwanda
suggest he is still willing to air in private
his beliefs on government policy about
which he feels strongly.
In a BBC documentary marking his
70th birthday in 2018, Charles said he
would no longer make public interven-
tions on such subjects once he was king,
declaring: “I’m not that stupid.”
He acknowledged he would not be
“able to do the same things I’ve done as
heir” and as monarch would have to
operate within “constitutional parame-
ters”. The idea that he would continue
making interventions was “nonsense”,
he said.
Charles’s biographer Penny Junor
predicted that he would continue to
fight behind closed doors on the issues
he felt strongly about, even if it meant
clashes with the prime minister.
Although the timing of the summit in
Kigali is uncomfortable for Charles,
government insiders said that ministers
had not considered delaying the policy.
They said the UK-Rwanda deal was
agreed and entered into by two inde-
pendent countries and was unrelated to
the Commonwealth.
A government spokesman said: “Our
Continued on page 6, col 4Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
Valentine Low
exclusive
The Prince of Wales is due to represent the Queen at the Commonwealth heads of
government summit in Rwanda, but fears the policy will overshadow the meeting£3 £1.75 to subscribers
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Charles: Flying migrants
to Rwanda is ‘appalling’
6 Prince speaks out before Commonwealth summit 6 Judge rules first deportations can go ahead
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