Tony Blair considered shipping asylum seekers to SCOTLAND years before Keir Starmer came out against Rwanda plan
FORMER PM Sir Tony Blair considered setting up a detention camp on the Isle of Mull for asylum seekers.
The suggestion was dubbed the “nuclear option” in confidential files from his Labour government released today.
Blair sought “radical measures” to tackle a rise in asylum seekers in 2003.
In a letter, his Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell told him that the attorney-general’s office “suggested we set up a camp in the Isle of Mull and detain people there”.
He added: “I doubt that is going to work because of the Nimby factor, but we have commissioned work to look at tagging, detention, etc., to help deter people and ensure we are able to return them as soon as their appeals have been heard.”
The Isle of Mull is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides, with a population of around 3,000.
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The memo, summarising a meeting with senior members of the Government, also said: “We started with the most fundamental question: do we need an asylum system at all?
“As an island, people who come here by sea have by definition already passed through a safe country.”
Current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is vehemently opposed to Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan which would see asylum seekers sent to Africa for processing and resettlement.
Another report released by the National Archive showed asylum applications had fallen in the run up to Christmas 2003.
At the top, Blair wrote: “It’s still not enough.”
Game of Marbles
SIR Tony Blair agreed to use the Elgin Marbles as a bargaining chip to secure the 2012 London Olympics, papers show.
It was proposed the British Museum lend the disputed ancient sculptures to Greece during the 2004 Athens Olympics — to then win more votes for our own bid.
A note to the then Labour PM from adviser Sarah Hunter said: “The Marbles could be a powerful bargaining chip.”
It is understood the plan was later shelved.
PM Dons Irish OK
PROPOSALS to relocate Premier League football club Wimbledon FC to Belfast in the 1990s were backed by Tony Blair.
A 1997 note in the state papers suggested it would “provide a positive unifying force in a divided city”, with Wimbledon becoming Belfast United.
At the time the PM was pushing the peace process.
By 1999 the idea was dead amid opposition from Irish footie chiefs.
Wimbledon moved in 2003 and became Milton Keynes Dons in 2004.