A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident in the Channel (Photo : Gareth Fuller/PA)

He made the suggestion in a pamphlet by the centre-right think tank Bright Blue, which urged Tory strategists to generate “credible” ideas to tackle immigration to counter the popularity of Reform UK.

Loughton said that “for all its faults, the [Rwanda scheme] would have been the first practical measure to provide a way of dealing with those coming to the UK illegally with no credible asylum claim but whose home countries would not take them back”.

The Rwanda scheme, spearheaded by the Conservatives, would have seen illegal migrants processed and resettled in the African country, but was abandoned by the Labour government upon taking power.

In March, however, the EU passed legislation laying out a framework which would allow the bloc to seek Rwanda-style arrangements with non-EU countries to host migrants who are slated for deportation.

“The best solution would be for us to join such a scheme with the more willing of our former EU partners. Just talking about clamping down on evil people-smuggling gangs is no deterrent at all,” Loughton said.