A Labour councillor has been blasted for his "condescending" remarks after telling broadcaster Dr Renee Hoenderkamp to "celebrate" the Government deporting two migrants to France.
Debating the "one in, one out" migrant exchange deal, Dr Hoenderkamp argued that there should be "no one" entering Britain as the country is "full".
The Home Office has confirmed that the first two migrants under the exchange deal have been flown to France from Heathrow Airport.
However, GB News has revealed that at least 400 small boat migrants are currently crossing the English Channel to Britain.
Renee Hoenderkamp exploded at Labour councillor Sebastian Salek for telling her to 'celebrate' the first two migrant deportations
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Hailing the deportations as a "success" for Labour, councillor Sebastian Salek told GB News: "Remember, this is a pilot. This isn't the be all and end all of asylum solutions.
"And let's face it, no other Government has done this, we have asylum seekers who have had their claims denied and they are leaving. That is a success."
Pressed by Dr Hoenderkamp on the effectiveness of the deal, she asked Mr Salek: "Can you tell me what we gain as a country when we're trying to get our numbers down from this scheme?"
He admitted: "This scheme isn't about getting numbers down because it's one in, one out, it's supposed to be a deterrent."
Hitting back at the Labour councillor, Dr Hoenderkamp stated: "We've got somebody in the country who apparently doesn't have a right to be here, so we give them to France, when actually what we should be doing is sending them back to where they came from.
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A second migrant has now been deported under the scheme | GETTY"Then we take someone from France who actually, apparently does have a right to be here, so we give them settled status and they then bring their eight family members. It's not one in, one out at all."
Mocking Dr Hoenderkamp's argument, Mr Salek told the GB News panel: "God, it's all doom and gloom! Why are we all being so downbeat? You wanted this to be solved and we got the first people leaving, that's for you is something to celebrate."
Interjecting his mockery, Dr Hoenderkamp raged: "How condescending of you on the left to say to me 'you should be celebrating'. I'm not celebrating, I don't want anyone coming in, we are full. Let's have a five year moratorium and sort out our own infrastructure."
Mr Salek then asked Dr Hoenderkamp "what would happen to this country if we froze immigration tomorrow", to which she stated: "People would be pleased."
The Labour councillor responded: "I think freezing would be really, really extreme. Of course it should come down and it is coming down, it's come down drastically."
Dr Hoenderkamp and Mr Salek descended into a bitter row over immigration
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GB News host Miriam Cates weighed in on the debate, telling Dr Hoenderkamp that is appears the deal "is working" despite only two migrants so far being removed.
She agreed, saying: "Well, it does show it's possible, but it still also shows that we're spending a fortune of money to take two people out of the country, one of whom was an Indian national.
"Why don't someone pick up the phone and say to India, if you want your visas, you need to take this guy back.
"Instead, we give him to France in return for other people, and then we're going to keep those people.
"This is not a deterrent, we should be closing the borders. As Trump said yesterday, this is destroying this country."
Mr Salek took aim at her remarks again, asking: "Why are you such a pessimist? The system is working, the system is working, and you're trying to talk it down. When will you ever be satisfied?"
Dr Hoenderkamp hit back: "Why are you so condescending? How many people are in the Channel today? About 500, so the system isn't working."