Conservative candidates received nearly £200,000 to pay for advisors on migration from a lobbying group whose leading figures described the Rwanda plan as a “dark moment” and source of “shame”.
Since July 2020, Caroline Nokes, David Simmonds and Simon Fell – all Tory candidates – have received £197,562 in donations from the organisation, according to the Electoral Commission.
The Refugee Asylum and Migration Policy project (RAMP) pays for politicians to have advisors in order to improve the migration system.
All three candidates are running in the general election under the party’s pledge to remove illegal immigrants to Rwanda, but the position of RAMP’s leading voices on the scheme raise questions over the candidates’ commitment to the plan should they be re-elected.
Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, the bishop of Chelmsford who is also a principal of the organisation, wrote in the Independent in April: “The passing of the Safety of Rwanda Bill is a dark moment in our country’s history, one that goes against our long-standing tradition of welcoming and supporting refugees in the UK.”
Baroness Ruth Lister, a RAMP associate and Labour peer, wrote in The Times in March: “Rwanda scheme is a source of great shame.”
RAMP has no official position on the scheme, The Telegraph understands.
Nearly all the money was donated as “staff costs” or “consultancy services” – which means the funds were used to pay the salaries of RAMP staff working with MPs rather than singular cash payments to the parliamentarians.
The largest beneficiary of the organisation was Ms Nokes, the former Tory immigration minister who served under Theresa May between January 2018 and July 2019.
Ms Nokes, the Conservative candidate for Romsey and Southampton North, has received £97,890 for staff, consultancy and administrative services since July 2020.
As minister, Ms Nokes launched a one-year programme to help refugees start their own businesses.
Following her time in the post, she campaigned against the Rwanda plan, writing in the Times in April 2022: the “disastrous Rwanda plan won’t stop the boats.”
David Simmonds, the Conservative candidate for Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner, was given £84,192 in staff costs and consultancy services.
Although he supported the bill when it was introduced to the Commons in December 2023, he admitted he started off as a Rwanda “sceptic” – coming round to seeing the bill as having “great utility” as a deterrent after speaking with refugees and visiting Calais.
Mr Simmonds told The Telegraph: “The staff time provides research at the direction of the receiving MP, and allows us to make more informed contributions to debates on immigration matters.”
Simon Fell, the Tory candidate for Barrow and Furness, was given £15,480 in staff costs.
He also voted for the Safety of Rwanda bill in April, but said he “disliked” the policy in a parliamentary speech made in December 2023.
Mr Fell said: “I am not a massive fan of this policy”, but added: “Nonetheless, it is crucial. We need a deterrence policy.
“I may dislike this policy and indeed the reality of where we find ourselves, but voting for this measure is the best route to stopping the boats, saving lives and crushing the business model of the criminal gangs”.
He told the Telegraph: “I didn’t receive any funds from RAMP, but for a period of around seven months they provided research support to me – all declared through the proper channels. This was to assist my work on the Home Affairs committee, constituency casework, and on asylum and immigration issues more widely.
“I voted to pass that [Rwanda] Bill in the Commons and supported it then, as I do now, recognising the need for a deterrent to stop the boats and end the business model that enables criminal gangs to keep this vile practice going.”
The offices of Tim Farron, Kate Green, Neil Coyle, Dr Olivia Blake and Stephen Timms were the other beneficiaries of the organisation, which also serves as the secretariat for the all-party parliamentary group of migration.
In total, the organisation has donated £452,720 to the eight MPs since 2020.
Resource for social justice
RAMP is bankrolled by the Barrow Cadbury trust, which describes itself as an independent charity “using all of its resources for social justice”.
The 100-year-old charity is an enthusiastic backer of campaigns supporting immigrants – spending £1,398,000 between 2022 and 2023 on migration-related programs, according to the trust’s annual report.
Cadbury’s report stated migration as its second “strategic objective”.
It said: “Our work on the migration programme has centred principally around opening-up public debate on migration and integration over a number of years.
“Since the referendum of June 2016 we have stepped up our work to support migrant voices together with those of established (receiving) communities and to respond collaboratively to current refugee issues in Europe.”
Ms Nokes told the Telegraph: “The RAMP project specifically works to try to detoxify the debate around migration and asylum. Given the fact that just this week we have heard abhorrent language, including that of ‘shooting’ migrants, I would have thought many people would want pragmatic and moderate politicians prepared to think about and work towards solutions that don’t seek to inflame and divide.”
RAMP and the Barrow Cadbury trust were contacted for comment.
