Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood's latest pledge to deport foreign criminals from Britain has been branded an "action of sheer panic".

Speaking to GB News, Political Columnist Trevor Kavanagh said Labour are "running scared" from the rising success of Reform UK.

Mahmood has vowed to "send foreign criminals packing" in her latest pledge to deport criminals "immediately" after sentencing in the UK.

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Mahmood said of the plans: "This Government is taking radical action to deport foreign criminals, as part of our Plan for Change. Deportations are up under this Government, and with this new law they will happen earlier than ever before.

"Our message is clear: if you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing."

Casting doubt on her latest move, Kavanagh told GB News: "Why did it take so long, and indeed, has this been cleared by Lord Hermer, the human rights-obsessed Attorney General?

"Will this actually get off the ground is the biggest question, really. Because there will be appeals, and we are still members of the European Court on Human Rights, and we will abide by their jurisdiction on that. So it'll be interesting to see the next step.

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Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to 'send foreign criminals packing'

"Will anyone actually leave who has been locked up in this country for the country they came from?"

As GB News host Anne Diamond predicted, the move will cause a "feeding frenzy for lawyers", Kavanagh agreed: "Well, this is the mainstay of their income at the moment in Britain, illegal immigration and trying to keep people here.

"What we have here is a Government which is plainly running scared of the success of the Reform Party led by Nigel Farage in making this the issue of the moment, and indeed of the year, and will be for the four years until the next election."

Criticising Labour further, Kavanagh added: "The Government is desperate to do something, but absolutely enmeshed in its own limitations, which are put upon it by the human rights laws that it is a slave to.

GB News

"There is no way that they're going to simply reject all appeals that are going to be lodged immediately, they're going to have to go through them, and they are interminable, as we have seen in the past.

"And unless they bring in a new law, which I don't think they've indicated they are planning, we will have to go through the same machine."

Delivering his verdict on the pledge, host Stephen Dixon pointed out that it is "another Labour U-turn".

He stated: "I can't quite get my head around it, because it's not really being viewed in this way is how much of a complete and utter U-turn this is.

"When this has been mentioned to ministers in the last year to clear 10,000 people out of our prisons because we've got this huge backlog, they said we can't do it because it would not be justice for the British people. They've been dead set against doing this."

Kavanagh responded: "Absolutely, and that's why you can tell that this is an action of sheer panic, because of the way that Nigel Farage is mopping up Labour voters, Tory voters and voters of all times, all ages, all classes.

"And mainly the issue is centred on the question of illegal immigration and especially the people coming across in boats."