Piers Morgan is being urged to “cough up” after losing a bet to Rishi Sunak. The Prime Minister shook hands with Piers Morgan as they agreed to make a £1,000 bet over his Rwanda policy, which sparked a great deal of controversy at the time.
When Mr Sunak was invited on to the TV broadcaster’s TalkTV show, Piers said: “I’ll bet you £1,000 to a refugee charity [that] you don’t get anybody on those planes before the general election. Will you take that bet?”
Mr Sunak accepted the bet as he added that he is “working incredibly hard to get the people on the planes”.
Today, it was reported that the UK has now returned an asylum seeker to Rwanda under a voluntary removals programme. Under the scheme, which was announced last month, migrants whose claims are rejected are offered up to £3,000 to move to the East African country.
An unnamed man was said to have been flown out of the UK on Monday on a commercial flight. The Rwandan government confirmed that an asylum seeker, whose claim had been rejected by the Home Office, arrived on Tuesday on a flight from London.
UK officials did not provide any further details, other than saying that the asylum seeker had exhausted all rights to be in the UK.
With the news being announced, people are now urging Piers to “cough up” the money he had wagered in the bet.
One Twitter user said: “Per the terms of the bet with @RishiSunak that he would not send a single person to Rwanda before the election @piersmorgan needs to cough up £1,000.”
Another added: “Piers Morgan loses his bet…”. Meanwhile a third claimed: “They’ve probably paid him off and he’s only going so they can finally say someone’s gone. Rishi did have that bet with Piers Morgan for a grand after all.”
When asked about the divisive “bet” in an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday, Mr Sunak said: “I am not a betting person and I was taken totally by surprise in that interview.
“The point I was trying to get across – I was taken totally by surprise – was actually about the Rwanda policy and about tackling illegal migration, which is something I care deeply about.
“Obviously people have strong views on this and I was just underlining my absolute commitment to this policy, my desire to get it through parliament, up and running because I believe you need to have the deterrent.
“I believe you have got to have a deterrent, you have got to have somewhere you can send people so that if they come here illegally they won’t be able to stay.”
