Sir Ed Davey has demanded an apology from Nigel Farage and the Conservatives as he laid blame on Brexit for Labour's failure to deport migrants back to France.
Speaking to GB News, the Liberal Democrats leader said the small boats crisis "was not an issue" before the UK left the European Union.
Plans to send back migrants to France were plunged into chaos last night after an asylum seeker's lawyers claimed his experience of being "tortured and trafficked" should "prevent him from being returned to France".
Another Air France flight, which was supposed to have at least one migrant on it, took off without them as last-minute legal challenges blocked the deportation.
Sir Ed Davey has blamed 'Brexit' for the 'disaster' migrant exchange deal with France
|GB NEWS
Hitting out at the failure to deport illegal migrants to France, Mr Davey stated: "It's a disaster, isn't it? I go back to the time before we left the EU, when under the Dublin Convention, we could deport people and there was no questions asked.
"There was no legal cases, it was all legally fine and we had the deterrent. Before Brexit, we had returns agreements with 27 European countries."
Criticising the Conservatives as well as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, he added: "And isn't it ironic that the Conservatives now complain about this and Nigel Farage complains about it?
"They campaign to pull us out of the legal agreement which enables us to stop the illegal immigration and send people back who had no right to be here."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
There were no migrants on the first two Air France flights from Heathrow to Paris | GETTYCalling on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to "rebuild the returns agreements" with the EU, Mr Davey told GB News: "The small boats issue wasn't an issue before Brexit.
"And so what I'd say to people is we need to rebuild those returns agreements properly, not in the way the current Government has done."
Host Ellie Costello then interjected, stating: "With respect Sir Ed, people were crossing on lorries instead?"
The Lib Dems leader responded: "Yes, but we sorted that out, didn't we? And also we could return them, and what's happened? We had a deterrent with those return agreements.
Mr Davey told GB News that the small boats issue was 'not an issue' before Brexit
|GB NEWS
"Remember the deterrent the Conservatives spent £800million failing to build with Rwanda? We had a deterrent before and that meant fewer people came.
"And what's happening now is people claim asylum in one European country. They know they can't go to another because under that law they can be returned.
"Instead, they're coming to the UK, and the failure to be part of that returns agreement with Europe is acting as a magnet for people to come to the UK."
He concluded: "So once again, the Conservatives should apologise, Nigel Farage should apologise for having made this problem far, far worse than it ever was before."