Rwanda flight grounded after last-minute reprieve

European court intervenes but Patel 'will not be deterred'

- ANDREW WOODCOCK ADAM FORREST EMILY ATKINSON

Boris Johnson's "desperate and cruel" policy to deter asylum seekers was in disarray last night after the handful of migrants on the first deportation flight to Rwanda won a last-minute legal reprieve. The £500,000 taxpayer-funded flight was halted minutes before it was due to take off following an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The reprieve came despite ministers earlier insisting the flight would go ahead no matter how few were on board. It is understood appeals were granted by an out-of-hours ECHR judge while the migrants were on their way from a detention centre near Heathrow to Boscombe Down in Wiltshire from where a chartered aircraft was already waiting to take them to Rwanda.

With no route for the Home Office to appeal the decision, the flight was abandoned shortly before 10pm. Home secretary Priti Patel insisted the plan will continue. She said: "Many of those removed from this flight will be placed on the next. Our legal team are reviewing every decision made on this flight and preparation for the next flight begins now. We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering our plans." Earlier, lawyers for the home secretary were forced to confirm in court that Britain would bring individuals back from Rwanda if the policy is ruled unlawful in a judicial review next month.

Ministers have previously claimed the policy would deter migrants from embarking on perilous trips by dinghy across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, and the Rwanda flights are being publicised in Calais and other embarkation points. And Boris Johnson boasted that the policy - branded "immoral" by Church of England bishops - could see tens of thousands sent to the African country.