Tories planned to spend £10bn on Rwanda scheme. From HS2 to benefits, here’s how it could be better spent

The Conservatives had planned to spend £10bn over six years on the failed plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, costs eclipsing the £700million already spent without a single asylum seeker being sent there.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper was accused of “hyperbole and made-up numbers” by a senior Conservative after revealing the figures to parliament.

Keir Starmer’s Labour government has scrapped the scheme, introduced by the Conservative government, designed to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for their claims to be processed.

Cooper said it was the “biggest waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen”, working out at £1.66bn a year. So how about some better ways to spend that?

Make up the HS2 shortfall

The London to Birmingham section of HS2 is estimated to cost between £8bn and £10bn more than initially planned. Figures from 2019 put the bill for the high-speed rail project at £56.6bn, but by January 2024 that had been updated to £66bn.

While Rishi Sunak scrapped the line north of Birmingham over costs, money taken away from the Rwanda costs could plug the gap for the portion set to go ahead.

Run a whole US election for laughs

Presidential elections are big business. Total spending in the 2020 showdown between Joe Biden and Donald Trump hit an estimated $11bn, or £8.5bn. That includes advertising, salaries, rallies and conventions.

Money talks – and with that kitty we could put up our own two candidates. Being born in the US makes you eligible to run for president. Would an Andrew Garfield (born in LA) vs Boris Johnson (born in New York) contest be a better use of taxpayer money than the Rwanda scheme?

Get halfway to lifting the two-child benefit cap

According to chancellor Rachel Reeves, lifting the controversial two-child benefit cap would cost more than £3bn a year. Reeves said she wouldn’t lift the cap without knowing where that money will come from. Here’s £1.6bn of that, enough to get halfway.

Buy every player in the Premier League

The total value of every Premier League player is £9.76bn, according to Transfermarkt. This doesn’t leave much money left to pay them – unless we paid them soldiers’ wages – but we could in theory buy them all for the astronomical Rwanda cost.

Nationalise British Gas

The market cap – or combined value of all the shares – of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, is £7.39bn. For £10bn, the state could buy these shares at a premium. Just like that, we could nationalise British Gas.

The firm made £2.8bn in profit in 2023. Room to reduce bills, then – or put some money back in the public coffers.

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