Home Secretary Suella Braverman has downplayed claims the Government's divisive Rwanda deportation flights could begin in the summer.
Only weeks after a Government source said asylum seekers could start being shipped to the African country within months, Ms Braverman said she was "not going to give a deadline" on when flights would take off.
Labour's Lisa Nandy branded the Rwanda plan a "con trick" and said she doesn't think it'll ever materialise.
Hardline Tory Ms Braverman, who once said it was her "dream" to see migrants sent to Rwanda, also dismissed questions over whether it was "a bit weird" to be fantasising about deportations.
She is under intense pressure to end the flurry of small boats bringing asylum seekers to Britain, with more than 45,000 people making the perilous Channel crossing last year.
But no migrants have been deported to Rwanda yet - nearly a year on from the deal being signed - as the policy has been caught up in legal challenges.
Ms Braverman travelled to Kigali last month to view accommodation for migrants from the UK - taking only right-wing newspapers on the taxpayer-funded trip.
Reporters on the visit were briefed that “we are certainly working towards getting the flights off before the summer”.
Pressed on the plans by Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday, the Home Secretary said: "We are making very steady progress.
"I am not going to give a deadline as to when flights will take off. We have got to be realistic.
“We’ve had a very strong victory in the High Court at the end of last year on Rwanda. We’ve not introduced legislation. We now want to move as quickly as possible to re-locate people from the UK to Rwanda.”
In a rare broadcast interview, Ms Braverman also refused to confirm reports that ministers are close to signing a contract with Portland Port Authority over "floating accommodation for asylum seekers".
Ms Braverman was widely criticised for a speech to Tory conference last year, where she said: “I would love to have a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda. That’s my dream, it’s my obsession.”
Asked if these comments about deporting asylum seekers sound "a bit weird", she said: “I make no apology.
"I care very passionately about stopping the boats - just like the Prime Minister does, just like the vast majority of British people do."
She said the UK cannot continue spending taxpayers' cash to accommodate people arriving in the UK illegally.
"We can quibble about semantics. But the reality is what action are we taking."
Shadow levelling up Secretary Lisa Nandy dismissed the idea of keeping the Rwanda policy if Labour come to power because she does not think it is "real".
Asked if the scheme works would Labour retain it, Ms Nandy told the BBC: "I don't think we're ever going to be in the situation where we have to dismantle this because I don't think it's real, just like the barges that the Home Secretary promised this week that it turns out didn't exist.
"This is just yet another way of distracting from the fact that they're only processing 1% of the asylum claims of people who arrived last year.
"The reason that our hotels are full is because they haven't got a grip on the asylum system, they aren't processing claims and they haven't got a returns agreement with France.
"That's what we would do. We'd set up a cell to tackle the criminal gangs working across borders. We'd process our asylum claims swiftly and we'd get a grip on the asylum system.
"That in the end is the only way to run a fair, humane, effective system that commands the confidence of the British people.
"And frankly she should be ashamed of herself for touring the TV studios making more and more bold claims when she can't even do the basics of her own job."
It comes after Rishi Sunak also raised doubts about the timetable of the plans.
Grilled by MPs on the Liaison Committee last week, the Prime Minister said: “No one has promised flights by the summer. No, that’s not what she [Braverman] said. What we’ve said is that we’ll start flights as soon as we can after legal proceedings have completed."
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