Cleverly confident in Rwanda plan despite threat of legal appeals

weekend’s death of a seven-year-old migrant in the Channel, Mr Cleverly said it illustrated the fact that “the bottom line is that the people smugglers are proving themselves to be more and more careless with human lives”.

“There is nothing noble or honourable or righteous about watching this happen and not doing anything,” he said. The Government and the Prime Minister, we are taking action to break these gangs and people can help or they can get out the way but I’m not going to be deterred.”

“If people, whether they be in the Lords, or the opposition parties in the House of Commons, if they are trying to take away one of the tools for dissuading people making these life threatening journeys, and if they’re trying to take away one of the tools to break the business model of people smugglers, and they are not suggesting what they would replace it, my assessment is they are not helping solve a problem.

“Other countries are looking seriously at replicating elements of our Rwanda plan. They are very keen to see how this works because they recognise that we can’t just sit on our hands and watch this happen.

“It is the luxury of opposition that you get to point at things and say I wouldn’t do it like that.”

Mr Cleverly said the Home Office intended to get the first flights to Rwanda off the ground as “quickly as possible” but refused to place an “arbitrary deadline” on when that would happen.

However, he said work to “operationalise” the plan in the UK and Rwanda was being carried out in tandem.

March 20 has been pencilled as a potential date for the Bill to complete all its deliberations in Parliament.

This would pave the way for the flights this spring, although Mr Cleverly accepted there would be legal attempts to block the flights. “We’re confident that the combination of the Bill, the treaty, our logistical work and our experience from previous attempts will combine to make sure that we’ve got a robust and effective plan of action,” he said.

However, he stressed that the Government’s strategy was not just about Rwanda but also police and Border Force working with international partners to smash the people smuggling gangs and to disrupt the supply chains of boats and migrants.

Under the new customs agreement, partnership countries and their customs agencies will share information to disrupt shipments of small boat materials, preventing them from making it to the Channel.

It follows a similar deal signed last month with the EU’S Frontex border agency to share intelligence.