The home secretary has been branded “shameful” after ‘running away’ from an urgent question on a Windrush deportation flight set to leave for Jamaica on Tuesday.

Priti Patel left the Commons chamber before she could respond to a question from Labour MP David Lammy on a government decision to push ahead with a flight to deport 50 people to the Caribbean nation before a review of immigration policy is implemented.

Several MPs shouted ‘shame’ as Patel left the chamber while Mr Lammy pressed on with his question, leaving home office ministers to answer concerns.

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Lawyers have launched a judicial review in a bid to get the flight halted.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak said those being forcibly removed had committed “very serious offences” and their deportations were “reasonable”.

But more than 150 cross-party MPs have called on the Prime Minister to halt the flight amid concerns people who came to the country as young children will be on board.

It follows news of a leaked report commissioned by ministers in the wake of the Windrush scandal which warned the Government that the policy should be reconsidered in all but the “most severe cases”.

As Patel left the chamber, Mr Lammy said: “I would like to ask the secretary of state as she leaves the chamber if she will make a statement on the suppression of the Windrush learned review and the implications for the deportation flight that is set to leave the country on Wednesday?”

Home Office minister Kevin Foster took questions in her place, stating the flight was about “criminality not nationality,” but opponents branded it “scandalous”.

SNP immigration spokesman Stuart McDonald said the Government’s action could leave 41 British children without a father in the country.

He asked: “Will the minister confirm that this flight will leave 41 British children separated from their fathers and nine British citizens without partners or husbands?”

Mr Foster told MPs: “With regard to tomorrow’s charter flight, the Home Secretary is required by law to issue a deportation order for anyone who is a serious or persistent foreign national offender.

“It does not matter what part of the world they are from, whether it is the United States, Jamaica, Australia or Canada, it’s criminality not nationality which counts.

“It is a legal requirement as set out in the UK Borders Act 2007 introduced under a Labour government, and just to remind the honourable member for Tottenham (David Lammy), he was a member of that government and did not, as far as I can recall, raise objections at the time to its provisions.

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“We cannot breach the Act and we will not allow foreign nationals who are convicted of the most serious offences including rape and child sexual abuse to remain in Britain.

“Tomorrow’s flight is about keeping the public safe. It cannot and should not be conflated with the wrongs suffered by the Windrush generation.”