GB News’s Mark White explains failure to deport ‘grand total of ONE’ migrant to France as new returns deal stalls

Discussing the block on GB News, Mark revealed that there are "well-orchestrated campaign by NGOs and charity groups" to "bombard Air France" and associated allies, to tell them to "change their mind".

He said: "They are even urging pilots that might be in charge of the flight to refuse to fly because of the potential for disruption."

Recalling how the first flight on Monday was blocked, Mark told GB News: "They were planning to send a grand total of one small boat migrant back to France yesterday, but there was what they were expecting, what we all could have predicted would be the case, a last minute interjection.

"An appeal to the courts to try to stop that flight taking place, or at least stop that migrant being put on this scheduled Air France flight over to Charles de Gaulle Airport, and it worked."

He added: "If you submit a legal challenge, even if there's not a real basis for a challenge, at the end of the day, it still has to be considered, and that can't be done in the space of an hour or two. It could take a day or more for those cases to actually be then considered by a judge on the particular merits of the case evaluated.

"So this is likely a thing to happen throughout the course of this week with each of these migrants who have been earmarked to go to France being challenged or challenges submitted on their behalf."

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• First migrant deportation flight under 'one-in, one-out' deal CANCELLED at last minute after charities threatened legal action
• Tourists push boat full of migrants back out to sea after it tried to dock on Greek island beach
• Britain's oldest sea fort could be turned into migrant hotel

Asked by host Eamonn Holmes if the plans are essentially "dead in the water" following the legal challenge, Mark disagreed.

He said: "No, it's just they're running into the problems, a microcosm, to be honest, of what we saw with Rwanda. Those were legal challenges that just continued on, not for weeks or months, but actually for years before the Government was finally over the hurdle of challenges.

"I don't think it would be the same in terms of the breadth of the legal challenge at this time, because you're not talking about sending them off to Africa, you're talking about sending them back to a safe country, the safe country that they were in just prior to crossing the Channel illegally to the UK. So in theory, it should be easier for the Government to get over the hurdles."

Casting doubt on any deportation flights taking off this week, Mark stated: "But if someone mounts a legal challenge, it's going to take some time in the court, not necessarily a very long time, but certainly a challenge running into days.

"So it could actually scupper it this week. We might get some migrants off during the course of the week, but listen, we're only talking about maybe sending less than 50 across the Channel this week.

"We might be lucky if we see more than a dozen go across the Channel this week."

Speaking about the flights on Tuesday morning, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones said she would not give a "running commentary" on when they would occur, claiming it would give the people smugglers "exactly what they want".

Ms Davies-Jones told Times Radio: "I'm not going to comment or give a running commentary on what is happening here. These deportations will be happening as soon as possible."