Prime Minister Keir Starmer had dismissed the Government’s Rwanda scheme as an “absolute waste of money”, which he said will not act as a deterrent as just 1% of small boat arrivals will be deported at a cost of £500m.

Keir Starmer has reportedly killed off the costly Tory Rwanda scheme on his first day as Prime Minister.

Instead of “throwing good money after bad” by continuing the costly deportation flights to Rwanda, he previously said he would spend the cash on smashing the smuggling gangs so people cannot get here in the first place.

Labour insiders told The Telegraph the Tory scheme to deport migrants arriving in the UK illegally to Rwanda was effectively “dead”.

Mr Starmer had dismissed the Government’s Rwanda scheme as an “absolute waste of money”, which he said will not act as a deterrent as just 1% of small boat arrivals will be deported at a cost of around £500million. “It is a gimmick. I am not going to flog a dead horse,” he said. “We are going to get rid of the policy straight away. I am not going to continue a policy I don’t think is going to work that is going to cost a fortune.”

The Labour leader said it would not be “compassionate” to turn a blind eye to the Channel crossings as he outlined his plan for a new unit including MI5 agents, which will be tasked with taking on the smuggling gangs. Mr Starmer said asylum claims would be processed “quickly and humanely”, but that those not entitled to be here would be removed “without squeamishness or cruelty” by working with other countries, including those in the EU.