Tim Loughton, a member of the home affairs select committee, made a dig at colleagues as he said he would “be slightly unfashionable and talk to the amendment rather than regurgitate some of the second reading speeches we’ve had”.

Mr Loughton noted Labour and other opposition parties had been unable to fill the allocated time for the debate yesterday, adding: “At absolutely no point did they come up with a practical solution to the very real, everyday problems we are dealing with here.

“While we have disagreements on our side as to the methods, what we want to achieve is in common and that goal is something that needs to be tackled and we are having an honest debate about it on this side, and alas the official opposition is playing absolutely no part in that debate.”

He criticised Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, for not using “helpful language” as he said “cool heads” should prevail.

“The Rwanda scheme is not perfect, I think all of us will agree with that, but it is the only real show in town to answer this essential question – how do you deal with people who have come to this country, mostly by small boats having paid criminal gangs, with no credible prospect of being able to lodge an acceptable asylum claim, and who come from countries for to which it is virtually if not completely impossible to return them, so they know that once they have made it across the midway of the Channel, they are effectively in the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future?”