A Government minister has insisted that a first deportation flight taking refugees to Rwanda will go ahead next week, despite last-ditch attempts to stop it.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said he was comfortable with the policy amid a row about its legality and Prince Charles’ apparent views of it.

Asked earlier today on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge if the Government expects the flight to take off, he said: ‘Yes we do.’

It comes after a High Court ruling on Friday paved the way for a flight to the east African country to go ahead on Tuesday – though an appeal is due to be heard on Monday.

Mr Lewis said the initiative ‘makes it very clear to these abhorrent people who run these modern slavery schemes and these treacherous runs across The Channel that this business model will not work.’

But he added that it would not be ‘appropriate’ to comment on ‘rumoured’ criticism from the Prince of Wales.

Charles is said to be ‘more than disappointed’ with the policy and to have privately described it as ‘appalling’, amid widespread criticism from rights groups, lawyers and immigration experts.

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A Clarence House spokesman insisted Charles ‘remains politically neutral’, adding that ‘matters of policy are decisions for Government’.

Mr Lewis said: ‘They’re not just private comments, they’re rumoured private comments, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment on what somebody says they might have heard without any context of it.

‘The reality is this is a policy that is going to deliver to ensure that modern slavery and these people smugglers know that their criminal methods will be broken down, and saying to people around the world ‘if you are a refugee, if you are an asylum seeker, if you are a legal migrant coming to this country, we want to give you the support to properly help you be part of the UK economy, part of the UK way of life, which is what you want’, and that’s right.

‘We’ve got to do that in a proper, legal, managed way and people who are encouraging you to travel illegally are wrong, and we’re going to break their business model.’

Meanwhile, a union challenging the Government’s controversial policy said it hopes it can win an appeal to stop the flight taking off.

The head of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) – which represents more than 80% of Border Force staff – said the ‘legality of these proposals’ must be tested.

Mark Serwotka also told Sophy Ridge that there is also a need to debate ‘the morality and lack of humanity that the Government is demonstrating’ with its approach.

‘We hope we win tomorrow in the Court of Appeal to stop the flight (on Tuesday)’, he said.

‘But, of course, the legality of these proposals will only be tested out at the full court hearing in July.

‘We’re absolutely confident that in July, in line with what the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) said very graphically in court, we believe these proposals will be found to be unlawful.’

Up to 130 people have been told that they could be removed.

The High Court heard on Friday that 31 people were due on the first flight – with the Home Office planning to schedule more this year.

The first claim against the policy was brought by lawyers on behalf of some asylum seekers and the PCS, as well as groups Care4Calais and Detention Action, which are challenging the policy on behalf of everyone affected.

Mr Justice Swift ruled against granting a temporary block to the policy until a full hearing next month, but granted the claimants permission to appeal against his decision, suggesting Court of Appeal judges would hear the case on Monday.

He said Home Secretary Priti Patel would not ask civil servants to carry out the policy before its legality had been tested in court if she ‘had any respect, not just for the desperate people who come to this country, but for the workers she employs’.

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