Rishi Sunak vows flights to Rwanda WILL take off by July as Labour forces votes to carry on late into the night

Flights to Rwanda will take off by July, Rishi Sunak vowed yesterday.

Planes have already been booked and migrants will soon be detained ahead of deportation, he revealed.

The Prime Minister admitted he had missed the spring deadline for his flagship policy to stop the boats, blaming Labour peers in the House of Lords for delays to the necessary legislation.

But as he forced Parliament to sit late into the night to finally pass the bill, he promised there would be a 'regular rhythm' of flights taking off over the summer to deter others from trying to cross the Channel in dinghies.

For the first time, he set out the extensive preparations that have already been made to get the first planes in the air within ten to 12 weeks, in what he said was 'one of the most complex operational endeavours the Home Office has carried out'.

These include getting 200 officials ready to identify asylum seekers who will be served with 'removal directions' in the coming days, as soon as the new law is passed.

Spaces in detention centres will grow to 2,200 in order to hold the deportees until they can leave and 150 judges have been earmarked to deal with last-minute legal appeals.

Civil servants have been told they cannot refuse to work on the policy even if ministers decide to ignore human rights rulings from Strasbourg, the PM said.

An airfield has also been put on standby, with commercial charter planes booked for 'specific slots' and 500 escorts trained and another 300 ready soon.

The developments came as:

 Home Office figures showed that a ten-fold increase in Vietnamese migrants is behind a surge in illegal Channel crossings; Expectations increased of an autumn general election so the PM would have more time to show voters he was delivering on his 'stop the boats' pledge; Fears rose that migrants due to be deported will 'go underground' so officials cannot find them; United Nations experts warned that airlines that work on the Rwanda scheme could be deemed 'complicit' in human rights law breaches; The Safety of Rwanda Bill was sent back to the Commons as the Lords refused to back down in a late-night parliamentary stand-off.

At a Downing Street press conference yesterday after chairing the first meeting of the Illegal Migration Operations Committee, Mr Sunak said: 'Enough is enough. No more prevarication, no more delay. Parliament will sit there tonight and vote no matter how late it goes.

'No ifs, no buts. These flights are going to Rwanda.'

Mr Sunak said just rushing a single flight was not sufficient, however: 'The priority is being able to deliver a regular rhythm, a drumbeat, of multiple flights a month over the summer and beyond. Because that's how you build a systematic deterrent and that's how you will stop the boats.'

He said the Safety of Rwanda Bill and accompanying treaty addressed 'all the concerns' raised by the Supreme Court when it ruled the policy illegal last year, prompting the emergency legislation.

And he insisted he was 'not going to let a foreign court' block the deportations, after the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg grounded the first planned flight two years ago in a late-night ruling.

The Prime Minister insisted that Rwanda was also ready, having strengthened its asylum system and set up a new appeals tribunal.

He admitted critics would accuse him of 'lacking compassion', but stressed that the UK is in a 'battle with callous, sophisticated and global criminal gangs'.

However, the parliamentary opposition continued with 'ping pong' between the Commons and the Lords.

The Lords sent the bill back to the Commons as they voted by 240 votes to 211 in favour of Lord Anderson's amendment, which would require Home Secretary James Cleverly to tell Parliament when in his judgment Rwanda is a safe country.

The Government caved into Labour peers who wanted reassurances that Afghan nationals who assisted British troops would not be deported to Rwanda. Lord Browne, a Labour former defence secretary, described it as an 'important concession'.