Rishi Sunak 'not interested' in doing a deal with Ireland on migrant returns - as minister says rise in number fleeing the UK over the open Northern Irish border is a sign the Rwanda deportation plan 'is clearly working'

Rishi Sunak deepened Britain's row with Ireland over migrants today, saying he was 'not interested' in doing a deal to take back those who fled across the Northern Irish border.

The UK is involved in a diplomatic spat after Dublin voiced alarm that large numbers are taking advantage of the invisible border on the island of Ireland to avoid being deported to Rwanda.

The Irish Government has threatened to bring in a law allowing migrants to be sent back to the UK, as the current legislation says Britain is unsafe because of the scheme to fly them to East Africa from the summer.

No10 today said that Ireland could not force the Uk to take them back and compared the situation with France refusing to take back those arriving in southern England in small boats. 

Asked today about a deal with Dublin on returns, Mr Sunak told ITV News: 'We're not interested in that. We're not going to accept returns from the EU via Ireland when the EU doesn't accept returns back to France where illegal migrants are coming from.

'Of course we're not going to do that.'

Asked whether there were any negotiations with the EU on returns, he said: 'No, I'm focused on getting our Rwanda scheme up and running.'

At the same time the Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said that the fact that people were fleeing the UK was an indication the Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent. 

Mr Heaton-Harris suggested he was 'comfortable' with the Irish Government's proposed legislation, which he said was just resetting the legal position following an Irish High Court ruling that the UK was no longer a safe country. 

Taoiseach Simon Harris has vowed to pass new laws to facilitate returns of migrants, after the country's courts declared the UK cannot be classed as 'safe' due to the pact with the African state.

However, a spokesman for Rishi Sunak today suggested that the Prime Minister would ignore any new law, saying: 'Even if Ireland was to pass legislation, it is up to the UK Government to decide who it does or does not accept into the country. We are not going to start accepting returns from the EU, just as France doesn't accept returns from the UK.'

The spat comes comes as Home Office figures show more than 7,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the journey – a new record high for the first four months of a calendar year.

The Republic remains part of the European Union, which has blocked British attempts to resolve the Channel crisis with a returns agreement to France.

In a sign of the rising tensions, Dublin had been talking up a meeting between justice minister Helen McEntee and Home Secretary James Cleverly in London today. 

However, Mr Cleverly has stepped aside due to other engagements, and Ms McEntee has now pulled out. As a result foreign minister Micheal Martin held talks with Mr Heaton-Harris instead.

Mr Heaton-Harris told a press conference that the UK has been told throughout Brexit that immigration was something to be dealt with by 'the EU as a whole', not with individual countries. 

Labour's David Lammy said it is 'way too premature' to say that the Rwanda plan is working.

'I suspect, actually, as the weather warms up we will see this scheme, I'm afraid, has not deterred many, many people from crossing the Channel,' the shadow foreign secretary told LBC.

'I think it's way too premature to say now that we've seen a few people go to Dublin somehow this has been achieved. That's just not going to be the case.'

Mr Lammy also called for a 'co-ordinated agreement' with European countries, rather than a 'whack-a-mole situation' where compromises are made with individual states as they raise complaints.

In a round of interviews this morning, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride underlined Rishi Sunak's view that the row shows the Rwanda policy is already working - even though the first flights are months away.

'We are not in the business of having more illegal migrants in the UK,' Mr Stride said. 'What you are seeing now are the early signs of the deterrent effect works.'

Former Cabinet minister David Jones told MailOnline that even if migrants were returned to Belfast they could simply cross into Ireland again due to the century-old Common Travel Area. 

'They may start to understand why we think Rwanda is a good idea,' Mr Jones said.

Ms McEntee has said that more than 80 per cent of the country's asylum seekers now cross the border from Northern Ireland.

Last week she vowed to introduce 'fast processing' in a bid to deal with the influx of people claiming refuge.

'My focus as minister for justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system,' she said.

'That's why I'll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK, and that's why I'll be meeting the Home Secretary [James Cleverly] to raise these issues on Monday.'

However, the British Home Secretary has cancelled that meeting, saying that he has a diary clash, with the Government instead being represented today by Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland Secretary.

Conservative MPs expressed incredulity at Dublin's proposals. Sir John Redwood said 'it takes my breath away' that Ireland wants a 'closed border' with Northern Ireland 'having said it was crucial to the Good Friday Agreement and to the post- Brexit settlement'.

He added: 'As Britain has always been told, we cannot send migrants back to France and so how on earth do they think they could send migrants back to the UK?

'Are they going to arrest these people and put them in handcuffs and take them in vans across the border, and then why wouldn't they just walk back again?'

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said: 'There is a certain amount of irony in Ireland seeking to return migrants to the UK who may have originally arrived from France in a Channel crossing.

'I hope the Irish government will talk to their fellow EU member state about further action to stop people getting on small boats in the first place.

'Clearly we all need to work together to solve this problem.'

While David Davis, ex-Brexit secretary, said: 'This is a Europe-wide issue and until Europe controls its borders then it's going to be difficult for any of their constituent countries to do it.

'But secondly, the issue they are facing has arisen directly as a result of their insistence on a so-called open border between the north and the south. Had they taken some of the other routes that I suggested, for one, then we would have a way of controlling it, but as it stands we don't.'

Detailing Ireland's plans, Taoiseach Simon Harris said it would be 'quite appropriate' for his country to send asylum seekers back to Northern Ireland. 

'Every country is entitled to have its own migration policy, but I certainly don't intend to allow anybody else's migration policy to affect the integrity of our own one,' he said.

'This country will not in any way, shape or form provide a loophole for anybody else's migration challenges. That's very clear.

'My colleague, the minister for justice, will now bring forward legislative proposals to the cabinet on Tuesday that will seek to put in place a new returns policy.

'We're going to await the full details of that but it's one which will effectively allow, again, people to be returned to the United Kingdom. And I think that's quite appropriate. It was always the intention.' 

His deputy, Micheal Martin, has pointed the finger at the Rwanda policy, saying that migrants are leaving the UK because they are 'fearful' of being sent to the African state.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is expected to discuss the issue with the Irish foreign minister and others at a routine bilateral meeting in London today.

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker said: 'The relationship with the Irish government is fundamental and I look forward to a constructive conversation.'

Last month Ireland's High Court ruled that due to the Rwanda scheme, Britain should not have been designated a safe place to send asylum seekers back to.

This prompted the British Government to 'entirely refute' the court's conclusion. One Home Office source described it as 'absolutely absurd'.