An architect of Australia’s effective small boats policy has encouraged Sir Keir Starmer to revive the Rwanda initiative.

Alexander Downer stated it was unfortunate that Labour scrapped the plan and suggested the PM should “swallow political pride.”

Australia reduced illegal crossings from a peak of 20,000 in 2014 to almost none by relocating migrants to the island of Nauru.

Ex-foreign minister Mr Downer said: “I regard it as a tragedy that the Rwanda plan became a party political issue.

“The Tories did lots of bad things but that wasn’t one.

“It would have worked assuming the legal issues could be properly addressed — and they were being.

“So the easiest thing for them to do would be to eat a bit of political humble pie and reinstitute the Rwanda scheme.”

Sir Keir branded it a £700million “gimmick” and instead vowed to focus on smashing the gangs behind the Channel crossings.

But small boat arrivals are about 40 per cent higher on Labour’s watch, with more than 40,000 coming here since the election.

Sir Keir has said he is open to using offshore processing if there is evidence it works.