PM HIT BY BACKLASH AT BID TO END SMALL BOAT CRISIS

>> PLAN WON'T WORK, SAYS TORY HEAVYWEIGHT >> MINISTER UNABLE TO ANSWER KEY QUESTION

RISHI SUNAK'S flagship immigration policy was engulfed in a growing storm today with warnings that it would fail and a Cabinet minister unable to explain how individuals genuinely fleeing persecution could legally claim asylum in Britain.

Senior Tories, immigration experts, union bosses and Opposition MPS highlighted a series of practical and legal problems with the Prime Minister's new blueprint to stop tens of thousands of people risking their lives by crossing the Channel in small boats. Mr Sunak, inset, has made dealing with the crisis one of his five key pledges on which the public should judge him at the next election, expected in 2024. The Government is due to unveil its latest plans tomorrow, which are expected to make asylum claims from those who arrive in "small boats" inadmissible, with the migrants removed to a third country and banned from returning or claiming citizenship. But former Cabinet minister David Davis believes it will be "nip and tuck" whether a single person is deported under the new system before the next election. He said the British public "differentiates" between economic migrants and genuine asylum seekers and were “very compassionate about people with a real need”. Mr Davis told Talk TV: “Any law that does not actually differentiate is going to fail on legal, practical — all sorts of grounds. On the basis of the headlines” this morning, this one is not going to work.”

Sir David Normington, former head of the Home Office, said Mr Sunak’s policy faced “very great” practical problems about where to detain migrants arriving by small boats for up to 28 days, and the lack of agreements with “safe” third countries to which to deport them.