Donald Trump advised Sir Keir Starmer to call in the military to stop Channel migrant crossings.
The US President warned the Prime Minister that illegal immigration “destroys countries from within”, adding that it’s a “very hard chore” to carry out a mass deportation programme.
Sir Keir, speaking for the first time since a migrant was deported back to France, said the Government must “ramp it up” to create an effective deterrent.
Mr Trump, speaking in Chequers, said: “What I saw happen with millions of people pouring into our country, I couldn’t stand to watch it.
“And we’ve done a great job. Nobody, absolutely zero, and I’m not even sure that’s possible but it’s a very liberal group who come out with those statistics.
“The last three months we had zero people enter our country illegally. And we do have people come in legally… I think it’s very important and we speak about it and I think your situation is very similar.
“You have people coming in and I told the Prime Minister I would stop it. And it doesn’t matter if you call out the military, it doesn’t matter what means you use.
“But it destroys countries from within and we’re now actually removing the people that came into the country. It’s a very hard chore, we were given a very, very bad hand…
“We have to remove them and we are removing them, we have no choice and I feel very strongly about it.”
More than 31,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, up nearly 38% since last year.
And a Channel migrant was finally deported to France under Keir Starmer’s “one-in-one-out” deal with Emmanuel Macron this morning.
The failed asylum seeker, from India, is believed to have flown to Paris on an Air France service from Heathrow on Thursday.
He is understood to have crossed on a small boat in August.
Critics last night claimed Paris will utilise its own return agreement with New Dehli and send the migrant back to India if he refuses to go voluntarily.
And this could leave the UK “lumbered with the cohort” France cannot remove, ministers were warned.
A series of human rights claims meant Air France flights took off from Heathrow to Paris for three consecutive days without any small boat arrivals.
And the UK will start accepting migrants from France on Saturday.
More deportation flights are scheduled for this week and next, officials confirmed.
Prime Minister Sir Keir said: “Notwithstanding the challenges to that scheme which you’ve seen in the last few days, a flight went off at 6.15 this morning successfully returning someone under that scheme,” he said.
“So that is an important step forward. Obviously there’s no silver bullet here, there’s a range of things that need to be done. But given the challenges of returning people it’s important to prove it can be done.
“It was done, it was done early this morning so I can confirm that flight went, it went successfully, and now we need to ramp it up to scale which was always envisaged under the scheme. But it’s very important we’ve been able to offer proof of concept if you like and we will continue in that way.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “This is an important first step to securing our borders. It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you.
“I will continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts.
“The UK will always play its part in helping those genuinely fleeing persecution, but this must be done through safe, legal, and managed routes – not dangerous crossings.”
Ms Mahmood has ordered an urgent review into modern slavery laws amid fears they are being exploited by human rights lawyers to block deportations.
One potential reform of modern slavery legislation understood to be under consideration is to require migrants to submit all asylum and modern slavery claims together.
But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Since Labour announced their returns deal 9909 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel, and we are supposed to celebrate one solitary return?
“Labour must come clean. Was this removal voluntary? How many are we taking from France? And how much taxpayers’ money has already been wasted on empty flights?
“No one is fooled by tough talk from Labour. They will never do the hard work needed to tackle the lawfare that blocks removals. The truth is Labour is run by human rights lawyers – Keir Starmer and Lord Hermer – who have always sided with open borders activists over security and control.
“Only the Conservatives have a clear plan to deport all illegal arrivals, close the loopholes exploited by activist lawyers, and put in place a real deterrent through our Deportation Bill. Without that, the crossings will never stop.”
The migrant was forced to leave the UK, sources said.
Another migrant was set to board a returns flight to Paris later this afternoon.
The French allegedly requested an Indian migrant because they could then offer him €2,500 to leave voluntarily.
If the migrant refuses, he will face expulsion from the country rather than the chance of asylum, as France has a reciprocal arrangement with India to accept enforced returns.
A French senior immigration official said: “We have already had an arrival this morning and will no doubt welcome two today and we expect a departure on Saturday of a group of asylum seekers to the UK.”
Former immigration minister Tom Pursglove said: “The public won’t be taken for fools.
“There is no good reason why we couldn’t return this migrant directly to India. France will now do so instead. Meanwhile, we’ll be lumbered with the French cohort that they can’t remove.
“Desperate stuff. This is a terrible, terrible ‘deal’.”
Migrants given deportation orders to France are lodging modern slavery claims in a bid to avoid being ordered to leave.
Sir Keir’s deal with Mr Macron was thrown into disarray on Tuesday night when the High Court blocked the deportation of an Eritrean migrant.
The human rights claim – the first challenge to reach court over the deal – came after deportation flights failed to take off on Monday and Tuesday.
The Eritrean migrant claimed he was a victim of modern slavery.
He arrived in Britain by small boat on August 12 after his mother paid £1,000 to smugglers.
The following day during an asylum screening interview with the Home Office, he was asked if he had been exploited and replied ‘no’, court papers showed.
But he lodged a claim under British modern slavery laws several days later alleging he had been exploited in Libya.
The Home Office has vowed to appeal this decision.