Transport Secretary Mark Harper has refused to share a predicted timeline for when the UK can expect Rwanda deportation flights to start taking off.

Appearing on the Camilla Tominey Show, Harper said: “We’ve got the legislation still to get through Parliament. We’re at the tail end of that, so I hope that will be on the statute book very soon.

“The Home Office has been working very hard on making sure we can act as soon as the legislation is there. So I would hope we’d be able to get that those flights off the ground as soon as possible. I’m not going to pick an arbitrary date, but we’ve made a lot of progress already. We’ve reduced the number of people crossing the channel by a third at a time when other European countries have seen a rapid rise.

“So we’re absolutely delivering on that commitment. I think the public wants us to focus on delivering on commitments, not focusing on speculation in newspapers.”

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