‘Appalling’

Britain's Prince Charles has called the government's plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda "appalling", a report said yesterday as opponents readied a last-gasp legal bid to stop the first flight.

The UK government intends to fly the first planeload of 31 claimants to Rwanda on Tuesday -- shortly before Charles is due to represent his mother Queen Elizabeth II at a Commonwealth summit in Kigali.

PM Boris Johnson -- who is also set to attend the summit -- welcomed his government's victory in a High Court hearing Friday that gave the plan a green light.

Charles, however, joined others including senior Christian clerics in denouncing the plan, and fears the issue could overshadow the Commonwealth summit on June 24-25, The Times reported.

"He said he was more than disappointed at the policy," the newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying.

"He said he thinks the government's whole approach is appalling. It was clear he was not impressed with the government's direction of travel," the source added.

The reported intervention from the Prince of Wales threatens to stoke controversy about his political views as he shoulders more of the duties of his 96-year-old mother.

In Kigali, Charles and Johnson are due to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose government is accused by campaigners of persecuting political dissidents and gay people.