Priti Patel defies celebrities including Naomi Campbell and Thandie Newton to deport more than 1,100 foreign criminals including 23 murderers in 2020
Priti Patel has defied left-leaning celebrities including Naomi Campbell and Thandie Newton to deport more than 1,100 foreign criminals including 23 murderers this year.
A total of 1,128 serious criminals were deported from the UK in 2020, counting 189 rapists, 70 child sex offenders, 705 drug dealers and 141 people convicted of grievous bodily harm and other types of assault, according to the Home Office.
The government source also revealed that 120 offenders were removed between December 11 and 22, after the Home Secretary ordered at least 100 foreign nationals convicted of crimes to be deported before Christmas.
It follows more than 80 black British actors and celebrities demanding that Ms Patel cancel a flight deporting 28 convicted criminals to Jamaica earlier this month.
Home Secretary Priti Patel, pictured accompanying police on an early morning raid of two addresses in Kent last month, deported more than 1,100 foreign criminals this year
Naomi Campbell, pictured attending the 2019 LACMA Art and Film Gala, was among the celebrities who called for Ms Patel to cancel a deportation flight to Jamaica earlier this month
The rebuke came after almost 70 MPs, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell, called for the flight on December 2 to be postponed.
A Home Office source told The Telegraph: 'Despite protestations from the Labour Party and do-gooding celebrities, the Home Secretary has not let up in her determination to remove foreign criminals from our country.
'We have removed 1,100 this year and will push on with plans to increase this next year.'
The foreign national criminals were deported on more than 30 charter flights.
Thirteen criminals were deported to Jamaica on December 2 but lawyers for another 23 succeeded in having them removed from the aircraft's passenger list.
One person was pulled off the flight minutes before departure after his lawyers persuaded a judge to intervene.
The judge ordered a 'stay' – suspension – of deportation in the early hours, just before the 2am flight from Stansted was due to leave the stand.
It was not known what crime the offender committed, but he will have served at least 12 months to qualify for deportation.
Thandie Newton, pictured in Los Angeles in March this year, was also among those who called for Ms Patel to cancel a flight deporting 28 convicted criminals to Jamaica
Murderers Paul Bingham (pictured left) and Ricardo Forbes , who were deported on the flight to Jamaica nearly 18 years after they were jointly convicted of a ‘brutal killing’
Home Office sources claimed at the time that the incident highlighted the 'opportunistic' tactics deployed by immigration lawyers. Growing numbers of cases are being blocked by human rights lawyers and pressure groups, they added.
It was understood 36 Jamaican criminals were notified five days before the flight that they would be deported and at that stage none had outstanding legal barriers to removal.
But a large proportion then submitted legal challenges.
New claims included human rights appeals and allegations that the criminals had been victims of modern slavery.