'I do not accept that!' Heidi Alexander grilled by GB News host on Labour's record migrant figures - 'The numbers were coming down!'

Discussing the surging figures on GB News, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was pressed by host Ellie Costello on the urgency to "secure Britain's borders".

Ellie quizzed Alexander: "If defence is a priority, then surely we need to make our borders secure. There's Home Office data out today showing that when the Rwanda scheme first entered law, the numbers were coming down, so it was working as an effective deterrent and you scrapped it. Do you regret that now?"

Alexander hit back: "I'm sorry, I just don't accept that at all. The truth of the matter is we spent £700million, and there wasn't a deportation flight that took off from the UK.

"If the previous Conservative Government had been so confident that the Rwanda scheme was going to work and it would act as an effective deterrent, why did Rishi Sunak call an early general election last year?"

Ellie interjected, citing the Home Office data: "This is Home Office data, and the threat of Rwanda was clearly enough wasn't it because the numbers were coming down?"

Making clear Labour's work on tackling the migrant crisis, Alexander responded: "We're taking this issue very seriously. We're giving the new counter-terrorism powers to the new Border Security Command, that's legislation that is going through Parliament.

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"We've done a deal with France so that French authorities can actually take action and intervene when individuals are in boats in the water, that's a new agreement. We are determined to interrupt these international networks and criminal gangs that are facilitating and enabling the people who are coming across in boats."

Interjecting the Transport Secretary again, Ellie stressed that Labour's current policies on migration are "not working", criticising their inability to "smash the gangs".

Ellie stated: "But that isn't working is it? You're not currently smashing the gangs are you, when we're looking at 50,000 people potentially crossing this year. These are record numbers!"

Alexander told GB News: "Well, we've never said it would be easy, that's why we have set up the new border security command, an it's why we are giving the new Border Security Command those counter-terrorism style powers.

"And let's not forget that the Conservative and Reform MPs voted against those new powers in the House of Commons. So if you want to talk about a party that is taking this issue seriously, we are."

She added: "Let's also not forget that since the general election, we have removed or deported 30,000 people from this country. That's a significant increase on what the previous Government did."

A Home Office spokesman said: "This Government is restoring grip to the broken asylum system it inherited that saw a whole criminal smuggling enterprise allowed to develop, where gangs have been able to exploit periods of good weather to increase the rate of crossings for too long.

"That’s why we are giving counter-terror style powers to law enforcement, launching an unprecedented international crackdown on immigration crime, have prevented 9,000 crossings from the French coastline this year alone and have returned almost 30,000 people since the election.

"At the same time we are cracking down on the false promise of jobs used to sell spaces on these boats, with illegal working visits and arrests up by more than 40 per cent under this Government."