The number of asylum seekers being removed to Rwanda under Rishi Sunak’s £240million scheme could be “quite low”, the Home Secretary has conceded.

James Cleverly told the Commons Home Affairs Committee that the scheme remained “uncapped” with no upper limit.

But he refused to give a number on how many of the 33,085 people identified as potentially eligible for removal to Kigali will be sent there.

“The answer is entirely dependent on other work we’re doing in parallel,” he said.

The Home Secretary did not put a number on the number of people who could be deported

“It may well be if we’re successful with returns agreements, if circumstances in other countries change, it may well be that the figure is quite low.

“It could be nearly at that figure, but the point is the number of people that we might send to Rwanda is entirely contingent on a whole set of other work that we’re doing.”