Home Office Minister Alex Norris has been handed a brutal grilling by GB News on the delay in deporting an illegal migrant who returned to UK despite being removed under Labour’s “one in, one out” scheme.

Questioned by GB News Home and Security Editor Mark White, Mr Norris confirmed that the migrant is “still being detained” 11 days on from his return.

The small boat migrant from Iran was flown to France as part of the UK’s deportation flights on September 18, but returned just a month later on October 18.

Defending the process of deporting migrants, the Home Office Minister assured the man “will be removed” and sent to France for a second time.

Mr Norris explained: “That individual will be removed, but they haven’t been yet. The system does take time, but he is going to have had the ultimate wasted journey.

“The system worked, he was immediately detected at the front door through our biometric checks, he was detained and he will be removed.”

Defending the exchange deal further, he assured GB News viewers: “Anybody who’s removed under that arrangement and seeks to come back is wasting their time, wasting their money and putting themselves at risk, and they simply shouldn’t do it.”

Mark then interjected, pointing out: “But given the fact that you’ve already removed him once, surely there are no legal hurdles to getting him back over as early as possible? The longer he stays here, the more damaging it is in terms of the optics of this.”

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The Labour Minister responded: “Well, we don’t do things because of optics, we do things because they’re the right thing for the British people.

“The processes can and do take time, and that will run to the degree that it has to. But I’m giving that clear assurance that the individual will be removed.”

Asked about the deportation of Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu, he told GB News: “Well, the law is very clear that if you commit a crime that means you get a sentence, a custodial sentence of a year, once you’ve served 30 per cent of it, you should be removed. And that’s what would have happened in this case come what may.

“We battled every inch of the way, we’ve significantly increased the number of people we’ve removed from this country with no right to be here, over 35,000 now, but it’s not enough. We want to go further.”

He explained: “We get pushed every which way in the courts. I think we need to be stronger in the courts, that’s a commitment we’ve made.

“But we also need to make sure that there aren’t loopholes in the law, such as the one that we’re consulting on, our closure with regards to right to work checks. There are gaps, yet we’re not where we want to be. That’s why we’re pushing as hard as we are.”

On migrants working illegally, Mr Norris said: “We need to grow our own in all industries. We need those jobs to be done by people who have the right to do it.

“You can’t just abandon all of those checks, because, as I say, it attracts people who have no right to be here. It attracts the undercutting of British businesses who do things the right way.

“So, for me, this is a significant thing that we have to do. I’m really pleased we’ve made the progress that we’ve had, but we want to do much more.”