No 10 drops plan for end-of-year Sunak speech on immigration

Idea is quietly shelved after Tory splits over Rwanda bill, while Home Office is accused of fiddling the figures' on asylum claims

No 10 has dropped a proposal for an end-of-year immigration update from Rishi Sunak amid concern that key policies that are meant to stop the boats" are running into trouble.

The prime minister had been expected to make a statement in December outlining progress on the Rwanda deportation scheme and plans to house asylum seekers in ships such as the Bibby Stockholm and in former barracks, Whitehall sources said.