thats opinion and you are welcome to that. But note the date April-24 we will come back to that later.
They are talking about Political discussions. They clearly set out the challenges the scheme faced coming into effect from 20022 to april-2024. The scheme was widely challenged and Sunak was ridiculed by the opposition, who said it would never happen and they didn't support it. In 2023 Sunak bet his future on it knowing it was a hot topic (safety of Rwanda bill etc) By the time it had finally got through the process April 2024, we have the complaint from Ireland that "the UK is sending their problems here" (my paraphrase). That coexisted with quite low small boat numbers for 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. One month Later Sir K says his government will scrap the scheme and almost everyone expected he would form a government. So after momentum building behind it in 2023, its fate was sealed in under 60 days.
Announcing a policy doesn't have much effect if alsost immediately it is challenged as unworkable. The same is true for 1 in 1 out. No argument.
Thats pretty clear - they say they don't know, because it never happened.
Again Policies and in the context of the above
"Saying there is no guarantee", Now thats interesting language and probably not very impartial. it is not dismissing the idea that it would have been a game changer. They are saying it might not have been the game changer that the government hoped it would be. Not much is life is "guaranteed". There is no guarantee that WW3 wont break out tomorrow. But we agree the probability is low.
This bit is saying if not many were sent and the numbers coming didn't fall then the impact would have been small - well no sh*t Sherlock. If it didn't work, it didn't work.