Labour was blasted as "too weak" to deport small boat migrants live on GB News as Sir Keir Starmer faces pressure mounts to adopt a tougher approach on immigration.
Hitting out at No10's "gimmick" one in, one out deal, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp urged Sir Keir to "bring back Rwanda" to act as an effective deterrent against illegal migration.
Labour's current "hokey-cokey" one in, one out deal has been shredded by politicians after a migrant returned to France came back 29 days later on a dinghy.
"They should definitely bring back Rwanda," Mr Philp sternly claimed.
Mr Philp demanded the return of the Rwanda deal
|GB NEWS/PA
"That is a scheme that would have meant everyone illegally crossing the channel would have been rapidly removed to Rwanda.
"That would have had a deterrent effect, because why would people bother crossing from France to the UK if they would wind up in Rwanda?
"Labour made a huge mistake by cancelling that before it even started."
Sir Keir binned off the Conservatives' Rwanda plan on his first full day in office in July 2024, just moments after entering No10.
However, ever since, the Prime Minister has attempted to build up Labour's tough approach on immigration.
In a bid to rival the immigration policy led by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, the Prime Minister declared the UK was at risk of becoming "an island of strangers" in a speech about immigration.
However, he was quick to pull his remark after critics accused Sir Keir of deploying divisive language, with many harking back to the words of Enoch Powell from 1968.
Now, the Shadow Home Secretary laid into Labour's "smash the gangs gimmick", adding: "Now they're saying they're going to send a tiny handful of people back to France.
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"I think they've so far sent 42 people to France. That's all over a time when 16,000 have arrived."
Since the scheme was first catapulted into action on August 5, 42 small boat migrants have been returned by the Government, in addition to giving the French Government £34million - £800,000 for each migrant.
But, discussing whether a scheme like sending asylum seekers to Rwanda until their claims are processed would work, Mr Philp cited the immigration policy of ex-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Back in 2013, under Mr Abbott's Government and led by the Australian Border Force, Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB) sought to stop asylum seekers arriving on the country's shores.
The system implemented a "zero tolerance" stance towards illegal arrivals on the Australian shores and was subject to international scrutiny by the UN and human rights lawyers - criticism which Britain should not be "put off by", the leader previously told the People's Channel.
Labour have returned 42 migrants on their one in, one out scheme so far
|PA
"What the next strong British Government needs to do is conduct very vigorous operations onshore and offshore to ensure that the people smuggling gangs are broken up and people who are trying to cross the channel illegally go back to where they came from," he added.
"You're not going to be put off by, I suppose, diplomatic protests from other countries - frankly, what's happening across the English Channel now and what was happening across the Timor Sea a decade ago in Australia.
"It's a form of peaceful invasion, and no country can accept what amounts to a peaceful invasion," Mr Abbott declared.
"We know it works, but Labour is too weak to do it, to be honest," the Tory MP said.