No10 gave more than £3m in taxpayer cash to groups campaigning against Rwanda migrant plan

Government departments handed out more than £3million in taxpayer-funded grants to refugee charities and groups who simultaneously campaign against the Government’s own flagship Rwanda deportation scheme. Nine groups received hundreds of thousands of pounds from departments such as the Home Office.

In April last year, Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council wrote a damning letter to the Government accusing the Rwanda asylum scheme of undermining the principles of the Refugee Convention, calling on the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary to scrap the policy.

He said: "We’ve joined 150+ organisations in calling on the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to scrap their unthinkably cruel plans to ship people seeking refuge to Rwanda. Instead, they must create humane and effective solutions to protect refugees.”

New data from the think tank The Taxpayers’ Alliance, however, reveals nine of those organisations took thousands of pounds worth of grants from the same government they described as “unthinkably cruel”.

The Refugee Council, the first signatory on the letter, was awarded £1,596,275 in the 2021/2022 financial year.

Eight other charities also received funding despite vocal opposition to the Government:

- The Medaille Trust, awarded £677,074

- The Pickwell Foundation, awarded £384,704

- Disability Rights UK, awarded £140,346

- Advice NI, awarded £98,000

- Race Equality Foundation, awarded £92,681

- Asylum Welcome, awarded £59,417

- Helen Bamber Foundation, awarded £6,000

- Citizens of the World Choir, awarded £1,500

In total, the Government gave £3,055,997 in taxpayer cash to its own critics.

The letter, signed by over 150 refugee organisations, also called on the Government to scrap the Nationality and Borders Bill, which had not passed at the time that the letter was written.