The King has granted Royal Assent the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act, the Lord Speaker has told the House of Lords.

The announcement has triggered the formal start of the plan to fly illegally arrived migrants to Rwanda.

It comes after a political ping pong between the House of Commons and the House of Lords over the bill.

Home Secretary James Cleverly has insisted spending money on the Rwanda scheme was "absolutely worth it" and the Government would “keep those flights going until we stop the boats."

During a visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, Cleverly said managing borders "has never come for free" and told those wanting to delay the plan that there is "nothing moral about allowing people to drown in the sea at the hands of criminals."

Parliament passed the legislation earlier this week, just hours before news emerged of another tragedy in the Channel when five migrants died trying to make the journey to the UK. Cleverly said Tory critics of the Rwanda scheme, including former Home Office ministers, are "doing what they believe to be in the best interest of preventing criminality."

The Home Secretary said: "When Conservative colleagues have put forward what they believe to be suggestions to make this stronger… as I say and I have said previously, and I stand by this, I respect the opinions of my colleagues and will always listen respectfully – that doesn’t mean to say we will always agree.

"But I am absolutely convinced that all my Conservative colleagues are doing what they believe to be in the best interest of preventing criminality and preventing people smuggling."

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Provisional Home Office figures show 6,667 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel. This is 20 per cent higher than this time last year (5,546) but slightly lower (down 0.4 per cent) than the figure recorded at this stage in 2022 (6,691),

Some 29,437 people made the journey in 2023, down 36 per cent on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.

The law declares the east African nation is a safe country and seeks to ensure the scheme, ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court, is legally watertight. Officials are now working to put the plan into action.

The first plane carrying asylum seekers could depart in July, after Sunak acknowledged it could still take 10 to 12 weeks to get flights in the air, in a blow to his earlier target of seeing this take place in the "spring" of this year.

This means it could be more than two years since the first flight attempted under the deal was grounded amid last-minute legal challenges.

The Prime Minister did not confirm an exact date during his Downing Street press conference on Monday and it is still unclear whether flights will take place before the next general election.

Scheduling flights is likely to take some time due to the steps officials must follow including serving notice on migrants they intend to remove from the UK.