Austrian leader set to back Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan

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Rishi Sunak is expected to receive a public endorsement of his Rwanda policy from the Austrian leader this week as he fights to portray Labour as being soft on immigration.

No 10 hopes that on a visit to Vienna the Prime Minister will be hailed by Chancellor Karl Nehammer as a trailblazer for Europe over the policy of deporting people to the African country for asylum processing.

It comes amid suggestions by some Tory MPs that Mr Sunak might end speculation about the election in the coming weeks by announcing a date in the autumn, triggering an unprecedented six-month campaign.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, had backed a policy of deporting people to third countries for asylum processing as her European People's Party called for 'a fundamental change in European asylum law' in its manifesto for elections next month.

The Prime Minister said it showed foreign parties were 'following our lead' and finally 'recognising a meaningful deterrent is the only way to stop the boats'.

Mr Sunak regards Mr Nehammer as a 'key partner' in confronting 'one of the most pressing issues of our time' – mass movements of people across the continent.

A Downing Street source said: 'The Prime Minister said that where the UK leads on tackling illegal migration, others would follow.

'Sure enough, we now have 19 countries – from Czech Republic to Italy to Denmark – as well as top EU parties like the European People's Party, saying they recognise a safe third country deterrent is the only way to break the model of the smuggling gangs and stop the boats.

'Labour's position is to undermine national security. By saying they would scrap the Rwanda scheme – just as all our neighbours do the opposite – and declare a migrant amnesty, they would lead us to become the soft-touch illegal migration capital of the world.'

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has also led calls to transfer migration procedures outside EU territory, while Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democratic Union leader in Germany, has made third-country partnerships one of his key policies for next year's election.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron will travel to Albania this week to meet president Bajram Begaj to discuss illegal migration.

Tackling the issue of migrants crossing the Channel, and immigration in general, is likely to be a key issue in the coming campaign.

Tory party sources believe Sir Keir Starmer's announcement of his election pledges last week was a 'disguised launch'.

A source said: 'We think they were expecting an announcement that an election would be held at the end of June, and booked that venue in Essex to look quick off the mark.

'You don't put the entire Shadow Cabinet on a bus for nothing'.