The US could start deporting illegal migrants to Rwanda in a deal replicating the Tory scheme abandoned by Labour.

The central African state has already received US deportees, including at least one Iraqi, according to a diplomatic cable reported in the US.

The cable suggested Rwanda might join the list of “third countries” where the Donald Trump administration sends deportees. The list includes El Salvador, which has taken in hundreds.

Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the Tory government’s Rwanda deportation scheme as soon as he won the election last July, without a single enforced removal having taken place.

The money has instead been diverted to fund a new Border Security Command, designed to use counter-terror style powers to smash people-smuggling gangs.