The Prime Minister is “running scared” on immigration and is trying to implement a “Rwanda-like scheme”, a Conservative MP has claimed.

Gregory Stafford told ITV Meridian’s The Last Word that “a massive disincentive” was required to stop people crossing the English Channel and insisted the Rwanda deal “would have done that” had the Labour government not cancelled it.

Sir Keir Starmer announced on a visit to Albania that the UK would begin talks with other countries on “return hubs” for failed asylum seekers.

The Government is exploring the possibility of sending migrants for processing in third countries prior to deportation.

Labour’s David Burton-Sampson, MP for Southend West and Leigh, told ITV Meridian’s monthly politics programme: “It is really important that we process asylum seekers for their benefit just as much as ours.

“Putting asylum seekers up in hotels is no good for this country, it’s no good for them.”

But Reform UK Kent county councillor, Maxwell Harrison, disagreed with Mr Stafford’s defence of the previous Tory government’s record, arguing: “The Conservative Party had years and years, and an 80 seat majority, to do something about illegal immigration.”

“For you to have the nerve to say you’re going to deal with illegal immigration is bonkers,” Cllr Harrison said.

Gregory Stafford, MP for Farnham and Bordon, told The Last Word: “What we can do is put a massive disincentive for people to come over illegally in the boats.

"The Rwanda scheme had the government actually allowed us to go ahead with it.

“You cancelled it. You know that Keir Starmer is now running scared and he has decided he needs to do a Rwanda-like scheme which is why he’s in the Balkans at the moment trying to do a deal.”

The government announcement comes in the same week that the number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats passed 12,000 for the year, putting 2025 on course to be a record for crossings.

The Liberal Democrat leader of Oxfordshire County Council, Liz Leffman, said: “We need to have more compassion and see how these people can contribute to our society rather than talk about sending them back.”

The Prime Minister has faced criticism for the language he used in a speech on `Monday, setting out plans to crack down on legal migration. Green Party MP, Siân Berry, who represents Brighton Pavilion, said Sir Keir’s “tone and rhetoric” was “awful”.

Sir Keir said the country risked becoming an “island of strangers” if migration controls were not tightened.

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