`Significant´ number of offenders left off deportation…

Priti Patel has lashed out at ‘lefty lawyers’ after a flight deporting serious criminals from the UK to Jamaica finally took off last night – with just 13 out of 57 on board.

Scores were hauled off the plane at the last minute after legal challenges by what the Home Office said were human rights solicitors ‘on the phones to judges in their pyjamas’.

Campaigners had been trying to halt the scheduled deportation flight to the West Indies amid ongoing concerns over the Windrush scandal.

But the Government insisted the flight was to remove ‘dangerous foreign criminals’ from the country, including those convicted of rape and murder. None of the offenders were eligible for the Windrush compensation scheme, according to ministers. 

A Home Office source last night told the Telegraph: ‘Lefty lawyers are going to spend all evening on the phones to judges in their pyjamas to try to get people who have committed heinous crimes dragged off this flight.’ 

Chris Philp, the Home Office minister for immigration compliance, said today the flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 ‘serious foreign criminals’.

But a number of Jamaican nationals due to be on board are said to have been granted a last-minute legal reprieve after the Home Office reportedly acknowledged they may be victims of modern slavery.

Ms Patel last night attacked efforts by Labour MPs  to halt the flight. In a letter to ringleader MP Clive Lewis she said: ‘When you and other Labour MPs continue to call for the Government to stop this flight, I would implore you to think of the victims of these criminals’ shameful offences.

‘There can be no doubt that the idea of these deportations being halted at the last minute only serves to re-traumatise them.’

Chris Philp, the Home Office minister for immigration compliance, said the flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 ‘serious foreign criminals’

Home Office minister Chris Philp said a flight left the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning, removing 13 `serious foreign criminals´ to Jamaica (Tom Pilgrim/PA)

The group of 57 criminals on the original passenger manifest were handed jail sentences totalling a combined 228 years, plus the murderer who was handed a life sentence.

Offences committed by the group also included rape, child sex offences, manslaughter, gun and drug crimes, and GBH.

It is understood most the offenders due to be on the flight came to Britain as adults, with a few who arrived as teenage minors. None was born in the UK.

The specially-chartered flight is thought to have cost the taxpayer several hundred thousand pounds. 

According to charities, lawyers had also gone to court to prevent parents set to be on the flight being separated from their children, who would be left behind in the UK.

According to the Home Office, the 13 on the flight had combined sentences of more than 100 years, including three who were convicted of murder, another of manslaughter, while others had been sentenced for crimes like grooming, drug dealing, burglary and robbery.

The department is yet to provide any more detail on why others were left off the flight before it departed.

It comes as the Home Office reportedly struck a deal with Jamaica not to deport those who arrived in the UK as children on the controversial flight.

According to the Guardian, the Caribbean island’s high commissioner Seth Ramocan said officials agreed the arrangement – for those who arrived in Britain under the age of 12 – following diplomatic discussions. But the Home Office has not confirmed the details.

Mr Philp said: ‘In the early hours of this morning, 13 serious foreign criminals were deported from the UK.

‘It is disappointing that specialist immigration law firms continued to use last-minute tactics to remove a significant number of offenders from this flight.’

He added: ‘These individuals had every opportunity to raise the claims in the days and weeks leading up to the flight; however, a significant number of claims were not submitted until hours before the flight was due to leave – meaning murderers and rapists have been able to stay in the UK.

‘Those we are attempting to remove have committed crimes which have a devastating impact on victims and their families.

‘We will be working through these cases as quickly as possible. I remain committed to removing foreign criminals and anyone without a legal basis to be here to keep the British public safe – which will always be my number one priority.’

Earlier this week, Mr Philp denied that deporting foreign national offenders is discriminatory after Conservative MPs called for ‘activist lawyers’ to be prevented from stopping flights at the last minute.

He told the Commons there is ‘no element of discrimination in this policy whatsoever’ and that it applies to French and Spanish nationals just as much as individuals from Jamaica.

It came after the Home Office reportedly struck a deal with Jamaica not to deport those who arrived in the UK as children, although officials have not confirmed the agreement.

Bella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said: ‘As minister Philp well knows, last minute claims are filed because his Government fails to provide effective access to justice before mass expulsions.

‘But the tragedy of this tale is the many devastated children who have had a loving parent forcibly ripped from their lives without any consultation or being able to make their voice heard. This is child cruelty plain and simple and it will not stand.’