European judges were wrong to intervene in Britain's attempt to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, the Justice Secretary has said.
Dominic Raab argued that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) had overstepped its powers by making a last-minute ruling that prevented the first flight to Kigali from taking off on Tuesday.
Ministers are stubbornly pressing on with attempts to charter planes costing taxpayers an estimated £500,000 to remove asylum seekers to the east African country - despite the fact these could be grounded by the courts.
Originally 130 migrants were set to be on the jet to Rwanda but only a handful of people were left by Tuesday morning amid a flurry of legal challenges.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is drawing up plans for the next flight to take off within weeks - but Mr Raab refused to give a cast iron guarantee that any asylum seekers would have been deported to Rwanda by the end of the year.
In a series of interviews, Mr Raab hit out at the Strasbourg court which granted a last-minute reprieve to people facing removal, saying it should not be legally binding in the UK.
He told Times Radio: "In relation to the latest intervention from Strasbourg, so-called Rule 39 interim orders, which are not grounded in the European Convention, they're based on the rules and procedure, internal rules of the court.
"I certainly believe they should not have a legally binding effect under UK law.
"Particularly in a situation as we've seen recently where the High Court (and) the Court of Appeal have considered at length the issues, in particular the question of whether to allow injunctive relief, and have roundly in that particular case, rejected them.
"I don't think that either in this case or in general it is right for the Strasbourg court to assume a power of injunction and then apply it.
"It's not grounded in the Convention and I don't think it's right as a matter of policy."
The Deputy Prime Minister said reports the Government was considering ignoring judgments by the ECtHR was a "slight caricature" of the situation.
Pressed on the Daily Mail headline, he told Sky News: "That's a slight caricature of what is a complex legal position.
"First of all, we'll be introducing and publishing our Bill of Rights shortly.
"One of the issues which has arisen is whether Strasbourg has a power of injunction."
Mr Raab refused to give a date for when the first migrants would be deported to Rwanda.
He told LBC: "I don't think I can give a precise date. The important thing to understand is that this ongoing legal challenge has been around the injunctions.
"There is a full hearing due in a few weeks and all the issues can be aired there."
Asked if he would stake his professional reputation on saying that at least one migrant will be taken to Rwanda by the end of the year, he said: "Well, I don't quite know what the courts are going to decide on the main hearing.
"What I can tell you is that I'm very confident that we set out a sensible, proportionate plan, which, far from eroding human rights, will protect human rights because it will help stem this trade in migrants, this trade in human misery."
The ECtHR is an international court set up in 1959 to rule on applications of civil and political rights breaches laid out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
It is not an EU institution, which means the UK's relationship with the Strasbourg-based court is not affected by Brexit.
