Home secretary refuses to guarantee start of migrant returns deal - as warning sent to foreign students

Cooper refuses to guarantee that first migrants will be returned to France this month

You will recall that Sir Keir Starmer signed a 'one in, one out' returns agreement with France earlier this summer, and it was formally ratified nearly four weeks ago.

However, no illegal migrant has yet been returned to France under the deal, and our presenter Gareth Barlow asked the home secretary when the first people will be sent back.

Yvette Cooper explained that "entirely new processes and systems" have been put in place to support the agreement, and it remains a "pilot system".

She insisted that, compared to the Tory government's Rwanda scheme, they are getting this up and running "extremely fast".

Pushed for when exactly the first people will be returned to France, she would only say that "it will be later this month" - but refused to guarantee it.

Cooper could also not guarantee that this scheme will continue to be put into operation should the French government collapse, although she did say that it was agreed "at the very highest level".

ICYMI: Home secretary announces shakeup of family reunion rules for asylum seekers

The home secretary has announced a shakeup of family reunion rules for refugees in a bid to deter small boat crossings.

Yvette Cooper said people smugglers were using the promise of family reunion to promote dangerous journeys across the Channel.

Addressing the House of Commons, Cooper said the government would now suspend new applications under the existing family reunion route for refugees until a new framework had been introduced.

She highlighted how refugee families arriving in the UK were seeking homelessness assistance, putting pressure on local authorities that was "not sustainable".

Cooper told MPs the government would deliver an asylum policy statement later this year, which would set out a new system for family migration, with the aim of having "some of those changes in place for the spring".

She said it would look at contribution requirements and whether there should be longer periods before newly granted refugees can apply for family reunion.

Migration: Tice hits out at 'waffle and words' that will make 'no difference whatsoever'

We've just been speaking with the deputy leader of Reform UK, who hit at the home secretary's efforts to crack down on illegal migration.

Richard Tice told our presenter Gareth Barlow: "The only way that you will create a proper deterrent is to detain and deport everybody who comes here illegally.

"Her measures, announced yesterday - it's just more waffle and words. It'll make no difference whatsoever. "

In a Commons statement, Yvette Cooper that she will bring forward new immigration rules this week to temporarily suspend new applications under the existing refugee family reunion route.

Tice said everyone here illegally should be deported, saying: "The overall principle is that if you're here illegally, you can't expect to stay here forever."

He went on: "The first phase of deportations should be focusing on men, primarily as many men of young age in their 20s. And that's where we would start and go through the process."

It could take an entire five-year parliament to deport just the men here illegally, he said, and pledged to "deal with all those cases".

The Reform UK deputy leader went on to say that children of illegal immigrants born in the UK are not citizens, and so should be deported.

"The role of the British government is to look after British citizens - we're absolutely clear on that," he said.

"The British people are sick and tired of this sort of gaming of the system by people who've come here illegally, whether they're economic migrants or whatever, and we're not going to tolerate it."

He also defended the party's pledge to seek a returns agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying: "Sometimes in life, you have to do business with people that you may not particularly like."

-SKY NEWS