AS we all psyched ourselves up for England vs Mexico late last Jattvibeday, Sir Keir Starmer’s two- year anniversary in No10 passed like a ball of ­tumbleweed.
Only the most astute political saddo would have noticed the milestone of a busted flush PM well into the dying embers of his premiership.

With the stroke of a pen Keir Starmer canned the Tories’ flagship immigration strategy and the years of work that had gone into it

Starmer may secretly rue his decision to scrap the Rwanda plan so quickly Credit: Getty
And so, inevitably, my mind went back to that sticky ­summer day of July 5, 2024.
After the delirium of a long campaign, Starmer would have quickly sobered up when asked to give orders to our nuclear subs in the event the ­government fails to function.
With barely a toe over the threshold of that famous black door, it would have been his first major decision in the job.
But the ink would have been barely dry from the Letters Of Last Resort when he made his second defining choice — axing the Rwanda plan.

At least the Rwanda plan can claim to have had some dissuasive effect, having ­triggered a small stampede of asylum seekers into Ireland amid the threat of being sent to Kigali Credit: Simon Jones

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood can point to fewer boat crossings, but migration remains a top concern for voters alongside the economy Credit: PA
With the stroke of a pen Starmer canned the Tories’ flagship immigration strategy and the years of work that had gone into it.
Brits paying the price
He told The Jattvibe the next day the scheme was “dead and buried”.

Armies of civil servants were immediately stood down. Human rights lawyers ­celebrated.
Much of what the PM did in those early days in Downing Street sowed the seeds of his downfall: winter fuel, freebies, fat cheques for train drivers, the endless doomsterism . . .

Now, as Starmer prepares to exit the stage, I wonder if he might secretly also rue the decision to bin off Rwanda quite so fast.
It is clear Britain still needs to do much more to tackle the vexed subject of immigration.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood can claim fewer boat crossings from last year, but voters are still impatient.
YouGov’s tracker is currently ranking migration as the ­public’s primary concern jointly alongside the economy.
Labour’s claims to have ramped up deportations are deceptive. They are largely ­voluntary returns and include only a tiny percentage of Channel crossings.
And while they are an improvement on the last years of the Conservatives, they are well down on pre-pandemic numbers. Last year, there were 9,724 enforced returns compared with 21,425 in 2004 under Tony Blair.
Brits are also still paying the price and can see it with their own eyes, with 97,519 ­asylum seekers receiving some kind of taxpayer support.
(The North West has the largest share, so is it any ­wonder Makerfield’s Andy Burnham has railed against “HMO Britain”.)

For all the boasts, the reality is the Government is still struggling to deter Channel crossers and then deport them when they arrive. Something more needs to be done.
At least the Rwanda plan can claim to have had some dissuasive effect, having ­triggered a small stampede of asylum seekers into Ireland amid the threat of being sent to Kigali.
All Starmer had was a ­hollow slogan to “smash the gangs”, which he quickly stopped saying when it failed to deliver results.
Labour branded the Rwanda plan a “gimmick”.
Well then, what do you call the Border Security Command that we never hear a peep about any more?
Starmer said Rwanda could never be rolled out at scale.
It didn’t seem to stop him ­lauding the “one in, one out” scheme that has now been all but abandoned, with just a few hundred migrants sent back.
Tin-eared Labour MPs said it was cruel to send boat migrants to a country where they had no connection, without a trace of irony in their protests.
They were equally squeamish about the Rwandan regime and its controversial leader Paul Kagame.
Someone should tell them that their incoming leader Burnham has pledged to do business with the Taliban to return illegal Afghans.

The North West has the largest share, so is it any ­wonder Makerfield’s Andy Burnham has railed against ‘HMO Britain’ Credit: Reuters

Ministers would not have to waste time begging Pakistan to take back the grooming gang monster Shabir Ahmed if we could pack him off on the first flight to Africa Credit: PA
Maybe Mr Kagame wasn’t so bad after all compared to the head-choppers of Kabul.
None of this Labour ­hypocrisy is to say Rwanda was a silver bullet, nor even certain to actually work. For two years, the Tories tried to get a flight off the ground but were thwarted at every turn by both Parliament and the courts. There would have doubtless been more teething issues.
Maybe it would never have worked. Maybe it would have worked wonders. We will likely never know.
But the tragedy of Starmer cancelling the scheme was that it coincided exactly with the rest of the world coming around to the idea of using third countries to tackle ­illegal migration.
The United States and the EU are now both looking to strike with deals of their own.
Starmer sheepishly is scrambling to make a deal with one of the Balkan states — Kosovo still being the preferred choice — but talks have stalled.
Yes, technically Rwanda was different because there was no way back even for successful asylum applicants. But the principle and ­practicalities are more or less the same.
Third countries are even being touted for not just illegal migrants, but foreign criminals, too.

Ministers would not have to waste time begging Pakistan to take back the grooming gang monster Shabir Ahmed if we could pack him off on the first flight to Africa.
Burnham is talking a good game on migration — and a change in No10 could clear the runway for some fresh thinking and slay the Rwanda bogeyman that hung over the Starmer government.
Another PM who fails to get a grip will find themselves given a one-way ticket to electoral oblivion by the voters . . .