By David Osland

Labour Hub’s zero budget won’t stretch to buying repro rights for that carefully posed photo of Suella Braverman in the throes of ecstasy outside a Rwanda detention camp . But do google it if you haven’t seen it.

All I can say is, get yourself a lover who looks at you with the same expression of unbridled excitement seen on the face of the Home Secretary as she anticipates the joys of deporting asylum seekers to one of Africa’s worst dictatorships.

The jovial mood prevailing on the jaunt was also evident in some of the comments reported by accompanying journalists from GB News, Daily Mail, The Times, Express and Torygraph, who all got their expenses paid. The government somehow forgot to invite the BBC, Guardian, Independent or Mirror.

“I really liked your interior designer,” she quipped. “I need some advice for myself.” Step aside, Philippe Starck. Welcome to the new era of detention camp chic.

The photographs of the insides of the utilitarian pink-painted concrete block apartments scream cheap standard-issue flatpack furniture rather than the last word in Canary Wharf loft urban minimalism.

But even if the uniforms had been by Balenciaga and the food by Heston Blumenthal, the scheme still boils down to the inhumane and unworkable incarceration of predominantly black and brown people exercising their legal right to seek asylum.

Braverman is well aware of that. But what counts here is the symbolism, not the substance. The policy, she says, will act as a “powerful deterrent” against small boat crossings.

While there is currently capacity only for around 200 people, this can soon be extended to thousands. Deportation flights, she added, will commence as soon as this summer.

The Rwanda policy – paid for with a £140m subvention to the regime – has been approved by the High Court. A ruling from the Court of Appeal is expected in June.

Braverman is so determined to press ahead with the package that she even negotiated an extension of the deal with Rwanda politicians, so that it now takes in victims of modern slavery as well as refugees.

It is likely to form one of the centrepieces of the Tory campaign at the next general election, a sort of racist last best hope of avoiding wipeout. This offers Labour an ideal opportunity to seize the antiracist high ground and argue for safe and legal routes for those seeking asylum in Britain. The leadership has so far displayed little inclination to grasp it.

Rwanda is a lovely place, and indeed “one of the world’s safest countries”, Ms Braverman would have us believe. But somehow you never see Boris Johnson freeload a luxury holiday there.

But the unhappy facts of Rwanda’s modern history remain unchanged, not least the genocide of the 1990s, which killed at least half a million people, and almost certainly hundreds of thousands more.

President Paul Kagame was initially hailed as a necessary strongman, if not the hero Rwandans wanted, then at least the hero Rwanda needed.

His subsequent track record – ranging from the extrajudicial assassination of his political opponents to his sponsorship of militias in two conflicts in the adjoining Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have taken millions more lives – has proved otherwise.

Kagame was in 2017 re-elected for a third term with 98.8% of the vote, a level of electoral endorsement that may not tally exactly with the extent of his real support.

The risks inherent in sending thousands of desperately vulnerable people into such an environment are entirely obvious. Braverman knows this, but is going ahead anyway.

Interior design chic is always a good thing. But one day the consequences of her policies may well make for more than a 16-page photo spread in Elle Decor.

David Osland is a member of Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP and a long-time left wing journalist and author. Follow him on Twitter at @David__Osland

Image: c/o Mike Phipps