A Tory migration minister has been left red faced after he was scolded over the government's plan to send asylum seekers 4,000 miles away to Rwanda.
Tom Pursglov e, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration, was asked repeatedly by Good Morning Britain host Adil Ray if he would live in Rwanda, but he refused to answer the question.
The MP said it was not a relevant question to ask.
The deal with Rwanda is understood to effectively be a fresh removals arrangement, where those deemed by the government as inadmissible under UK asylum rules will be relocated.
It is thought the East African nation's government will process the claims and those who are successful will be provided Rwandan refugee status.
This would be different from plans to offshore processing of UK asylum claims, which would involve sending migrants to another country or location while their applications are determined and then returned once approved.
On ITV's GMB today host Adil Ray quizzed Pursglove about the plan and asked him if he would be willing to live in Rwanda.
Ray asked the minister: "Could you go and live in Rwanda?"
Pursglove replied: "I don't think that that is relevant."
Ray interrupted: "Of course it is relevant, if it's not good enough for you why is it good enough for a Syrian or Afghan refugee.
"It's got to be somewhere which is safe. These are human beings, these are people who come to us for help. You wouldn't go to Rwanda, would you?"
The minister attempted to reply: "Our position is very clear."
Ray said: "Would you go to Rwanda? Would you live in Rwanda?"
Pursglove replied: "I am a British citizen that lives here legally."
Rays asked: "But if you had to would you live in Rwanda?"
Pursglove added: "It's not a direct comparison."
"Of course it is. Why are you asking someone else to live in a country you would live in yourself?," said Ray.
'Fully prosperous'
In a separate interview the minister said the aim is that those transferred to Rwanda and accepted for asylum there will be able to enjoy "fully prosperous" lives.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The fact is that when people are transferred to Rwanda, they are under no compulsion to stay there. If they wish to leave and not enter the asylum system there, they are able to do so.
"But what will happen is that people will be processed under the Rwandan asylum system, if they are granted they can remain in Rwanda and what Rwanda want to do is to make sure those people can live fully prosperous and successful lives, and the partnership agreement we've got with them will help them to achieve that."
He said the cost involved for Britain would "very much depend on the volumes of individuals who are being relocated" and "the length of time they spend in the Rwandan asylum system ".
"It is impossible to quantify those figures at the moment because the fact is there are variables at play here that are very relevant to those overall sums of money," he said, before adding that UK payments to Rwanda will be "pretty equivalent" to what is being spent domestically.
Pursglove said he was "not putting a timescale" on how long the new approach would take to stop Channel small boat crossings from occurring.
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