Sir Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” migrant deal with France has been branded a “joke” after failing to deport a single migrant on two separate flights.

Speaking to GB News, ex-Tory adviser Charlie Rowley hit out at the Government’s latest efforts to tackle the migrant crisis, stating it is “not a surprise” that deportations have been blocked.

An Eritrean migrant set to be on board a deportation flight to France was granted leave to remain in the UK after claiming his experience of being “tortured and trafficked” should “prevent him from being returned to France”.

The High Court blocked the migrant from being deported, becoming the second flight departing Heathrow Airport with zero migrants on board.

Criticising the deal, Mr Rowley told GB News: “It’ll be a shock to people that even with a change of Government, even with a change of Home Secretary in the last few weeks that these flights cannot get off the ground, but also it’s no surprise.

“Not only can we not seem to be able to deport people even if you have a one in, one out scheme, I don’t think it’s what the public want.

“I think they want to get rid of people that have come into this country illegally, they don’t want to trade like for like, but that’s where we are.”

Hitting out at the agreement further, he added: “Even when a sovereign nation like the United Kingdom does a deal with another sovereign nation that is on the forefront of Western democracy, that is France, we can’t get somebody on a plane who’s come from Eritrea.

“They’ve clearly had their claim denied in the UK, and only 48 hours, 24 hours before that flight takes off, they’ve all of a sudden discovered that they have been trafficked in some way, or they have been abused under the Modern Slavery Act, and they’ve been able to halt the whole process. This is a joke.”

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Highlighting Labour’s failure to “learn lessons” from the failed plans of the last Tory Government, Mr Rowley stated: “The British public will be sitting at home thinking, how on earth can any Government, once bitten, twice shy, the last Government under the Tories got it hopelessly wrong.

“This Government should have learned all of these lessons, and yet we can’t get those flights off the ground. It’s beggars belief, and I think lots of people will be very angry about it.”

Pointing out that the migrant who was allowed to stay “changed his story” once being selected for deportation, host Ellie Costello fumed: “There’s so much focus on the ECHR, but actually it’s the Modern Slavery Act in this case that needs to be looked at, isn’t it?

“Because people can just change their story, this man said initially that he’d suffered no exploitation at all, and then when it looked as though set to be deported, he said, oh no, I was. So if you’re allowing for people to change their story, well, then they’re never going to be deported?”

Mr Rowley agreed: “Well exactly, and this will just be now an example that everyone else will try and follow to prevent their own deportation.

“There’s a question in the Home Office whether actually, when you arrive into the UK, when you have your process claimed, you should be asked that question as well about modern day slavery at the same time.

“So you’ve got to ask why are Home Office officials not bringing all this together? This is not a new topic, I’m afraid to say. This is not something that is a new issue that a Government has to grapple with.”

He concluded: “The last Government totally failed to get a grip on it. We’ve had a previous Home secretary, now Foreign Secretary that spent five years as the Shadow Home Secretary, who spent a year and a bit as the chair of the Home Affairs Select committee.

“If anybody should be as prepared as they possibly can be to get on top of this issue and to deal with this crisis, it should have been this Labour Government.

“And yet again, more headlines this morning where people cannot seem to be deported from the UK.”