Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has been scolded for her "hot air" plans to deport more than 14,000 illegal migrants and foreign criminals by the end of the year.
Cooper outlined the latest on Labour's pledged crackdown in Parliament, vowing to take "strong and clear steps to boost our border security", with a new Border Security Command.
Cooper told MPs: "Our new Border Security Command will work with European enforcement agencies to find every route in to smash the criminal smuggling gangs organising dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.
"And by increasing enforcement capabilities and returns, we will establish a system that is better controlled and managed, in place of the chaos that has blighted the system for far too long."
Mike Parry has criticised Cooper's pledge to deport 14,000 illegal migrants over the next four months
GB News / PA
Criticising the plans on GB News, commentator Mike Parry blasted Cooper's "pitiful" decision and claimed the Home Secretary's latest crackdown is "out of the blue".
Parry explained: "I just find it absolutely amazing. Starmer wanted to do a deal that meant more people could come here if he sent a few people back, and now she's saying I'm going to round up 14,000 and return them.
"She doesn't say where she's going to return them to or how she's going to find them, because they've escaped into the black economy. So I honestly think it's a lot of hot air, and it's pitiful."
In defence of Cooper, former Labour MP Stephen Pound praised the plans for "three new detention centres" to process asylum applications.
The Home Secretary pledged a new Border Security Command will establish a 'better controlled system'
Parliament TV
Pound told GB News: "As far as I'm concerned, some of them will probably have a right to claim asylum in this country. And I'd like to see them processed, legitimate and paying tax. The others have gotta be shipped out of here.
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"Once you actually start processing these cases, then you can get a proper grip on this situation. At the moment, it's chaos."
Offering her verdict on the latest goalpost, host Bev Turner said it is "always a risk" for those such as the Home Secretary to "start putting figures on things".
She said: "It's a risk to start putting figures on things. She must be confident if she's saying 14,000 - it is very specific."
Parry disagreed with Bev, fuming: "I think somebody in the civil service has come up with this figure of 14,000. They've suddenly realised or somebody has warned them, that if you scrap the only disincentive to come to this country that there was, the Rwanda scheme, without immediately replacing it with a credible idea, you're going to have to come up with something.
Bev Turner told GB News that it is a 'risk' to place an exact figure on a pledge
GB News
"If you say you're going to smash the gangs, but actually 6000 people have now come since you've got into power, this plan is immediately failing."
Hitting back at Parry, Pound argued that there was "no evidence" of the Rwanda scheme being a "deterrent" for migrants crossing the Channel.
He told GB News: "The key thing here is when you've got these people swimming around and nobody knows who or what or why or where, we've got to get a grip on it.
"The easiest thing to do, the basic thing to do, is actually start processing people. We've had these long arguments about ID cards, and I still think there needs to be some sort of identification."
