GB News’s Home and Security Editor Mark White has analysed Labour’s “minute progress” in tackling Britain’s migrant crisis, following the first successful deportation flight to France.

Following a High Court block earlier this week, the Home Office has confirmed that the first migrant under the “one in, one out” scheme with the French has been sent back.

The migrant, from India, is believed to have been flown back by the Home Office on an Air France plane this morning.

The man is the first of up to 100 small boat migrants set to be flown back to France detained by Border Force at the start of last month.

Detailing the migrant milestone, Mark told GB News: “I’ve said the second the Government got a single migrant off the ground and back to France they would be trumpeting that fact, and that is exactly what has happened.

“Confirmation now from the Home Office that the first small boat migrant under this partial returns deal with France has now left on an Air France flight this morning off to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, it seems, without a hitch nor a last minute appeal. Or at least if they were appealed against, they were able somehow to circumvent that.”

Highlighting the Government’s “modest” progress with the scheme after being blocked previously by the High Court, he added: “Of course, as far as the Government is concerned, a single small boat migrant has gone.

“But the Government, I’m sure will argue that at least you know the process, as modest as it clearly is, is under way.”

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Reacting to the news, GB News host Andrew Pierce highlighted that Labour assured the scheme would send “up to 50 migrants a week” back to France.

Stating that the milestone is “small progress”, Mark added: “It’s absolutely minute the progress, there’s no doubt.

“But I think this is what we are going to be faced with going forward, because there is no way that the legal wraparound protections that the migrants get, both in terms of the lawyers that are representing migrants, but also the NGOs and charities will continue to do their utmost to ensure the best possible outcome for the migrants that they represent.”

Warning that the scheme will continue to be a “frustrating process” for Government, Mark explained: “What this will mean is every time a migrant is detained and then told that they are subject to deportation back to France, this wraparound service from these NGOs and charities and lawyers will swing into action and they will appeal that.

“So I think it will be a frustrating process for the Government going forward, as they will have to deal with legal challenge after legal challenge, which all that does, of course, is in many respects it delays the whole process, but it also costs the UK Government, our court system, an enormous amount of money having to challenge these legal appeals every time they come up, and that will continue to mount up.”

Stressing the ongoing legal challenges of deportation flights, Mark concluded: “It will also, of course, have the net effect of clogging up an already difficult legal system in terms of the way in which the courts already have a massive backlog of cases that they are trying to get through.”

A French government official told The Telegraph that there is a planned reciprocal flight of the first legitimate asylum seekers from France to the UK.

The senior immigration official said: “We have already had an arrival this morning and will no doubt welcome two today and we expect a departure on Saturday of a group of asylum seekers to the UK.”