A Labour minister refused to say how many migrants will be sent back this week under Sir Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal with France. The first deportations will reportedly take place today on a commercial Air France flight barring any last-minute legal challenges.

Pressed on how many small boat arrivals would be returned this week, Skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith told Sky News: “We’re not going to be talking about specific numbers or specific timings.” Host Matt Barbet pressed: “You will if it suits you though won’t you?”

Baroness Smith added: “This is the start of this particular bit of action.”

The presenter asked: “If you won’t talk about numbers how can anyone know if it’s working?”

The Labour peer began saying: “People can already see that the approach this Government is taking is meaning that we’re able to…”

The Sky News host then said: “The Home Office is publishing how many people are coming in, why won’t you tell us how many people are leaving?”

Baroness Smith replied: “Well because that’s one specific route which it’s important to get up and running in order to make sure it works.”

Asked if the Government would “tell is in due course how many”, she went on: “I’m sure at some point in the future it will be possible to see the impact that this is having on the overall numbers of people who are coming here and the increased number of people who have already been returned because they don’t have a right to be in this country.”

Dozens of migrants are expected to be sent back to France this week under the pilot scheme in exchange for those who apply and are approved to come to the UK.

But more than 30,000 have made the dangerous journey across the English Channel so far this year.