James Cleverly has delivered a scathing assessment of Labour’s record on border control, branding the party’s approach “arrogant and complacent”.

Speaking to GB News, the former Home Secretary said the Home Office under Labour had “lost focus” and was “not fit for purpose”.

It comes after Shabana Mahmood, who took office last month, said the Home Office had been “set up to fail” but said she was working to rebuild it so it “delivers for this country”.

Mr Cleverly told GB News: “I don’t see them as an enemy within. But I did see that amongst certain circles within the Home Office, there was a lack of focus.

“There was a lack of prioritisation. When I became home secretary, I made it very, very clear what our priorities were securing our borders, protecting women and girls, and ensuring that the kind of crimes that people feel in their everyday lives were gripped.

“What I discovered in the department was that it diluted that effort amongst a whole load of other things.

“It’s one of the reasons why we need to reduce the size of the civil service, to make sure that the people that do work for the civil service are excellent and are focused.

“I’m not a fan of blaming the civil servants, because ultimately it is the job of ministers to drive the civil service. But I do recognise some of the frustrations. My broader frustration, however, with Labour is they thought it would be easy.

“They thought that just by turning up all these problems would go away. They didn’t have a plan at best, they had a few soundbites.

“And what we’re seeing now is absolutely terrible figures on all those key metrics.”

On the Rwanda deportation policy, he expressed confidence that it could have worked if given more time, adding that legal challenges could have been overcome.

Mr Cleverly also noted that positive changes in home affairs might not have been visible to the public before the last general election anyway.

He said the Government is now focused on holding Labour to account for its “appalling failure” to control borders effectively.

Mr Cleverly cited reductions in legal migration and record numbers of police officers as examples of Conservative improvements during his tenure.

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He argued that bringing the Civil Service back to pre-2016 levels would save billions of pounds and allow money to be redeployed to key priorities.

The former Home Secretary said these measures would also ease the tax burden on citizens and businesses across the UK.

On Wednesday, Mahmood said: “This report, written under the last Government, is damning. To those who have encountered the Home Office in recent years, the revelations are all too familiar.

“The Home Office is not yet fit for purpose, and has been set up for failure. As this report shows, the last Conservative government knew this, but failed to do anything about it.

“Things are now changing. I will work, with the new permanent secretary to transform the Home Office so that it delivers for this country.”

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