The prime minister said he will do "whatever is necessary" to get the removal flights going after campaigners won a Court of Appeal challenge over the controversial policy.

Earlier on Thursday, three judges overturned a High Court ruling that previously said the east African nation could be considered a "safe third country" for migrants to be sent to.

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It was the latest court verdict in a long-running legal battle to get the scheme up and running, after it was announced last April as part of plans to crack down on Channel crossings.

Announcing the ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said he does not accept that migrants would be at risk of removal to their home countries from Rwanda - but it is not a safe place for them to be housed in while their asylum claims are processed.

The judge concluded: "The result is that the High Court's decision that Rwanda was a safe third country is reversed, and unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum process are corrected, removal of asylum seekers will be unlawful."

However, Mr Sunak said: "While I respect the court, I fundamentally disagree with their conclusions.

"I strongly believe the Rwandan government has provided the assurances necessary to ensure there is no real risk that asylum seekers relocated under the Rwanda policy would be wrongly returned to third countries - something that the Lord Chief Justice agrees with.

"Rwanda is a safe country. The High Court agreed. The UNHCR have their own refugee scheme for Libyan refugees in Rwanda. We will now seek permission to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court."

This was echoed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who said she was "fully committed" to the policy.

The Rwandan government also said it took "issue" with the ruling, calling the nation "one of the safest countries in the world".

Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said her administration was "still committed" to making the partnership work, adding: "The broken global migration system is failing to protect the vulnerable, and empowering criminal smuggling gangs at an immeasurable human cost.

"When the migrants do arrive, we will welcome them and provide them with the support they'll need to build new lives in Rwanda."

Lord Burnett said the court reached its conclusion on the law and took "no view whatsoever" about the political merits of the policy.

The judge, who heard the appeal with Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lord Justice Underhill, said the court ruled by a majority and he had agreed with a previous ruling saying the scheme was lawful - but the two others did not.

He said the court unanimously accepted that assurances on safety from the Rwandan government were made "in good faith".

However, "the majority believes that the evidence does not establish that the necessary changes had by then been reliably effected or would have been at the time of the proposed removals".

PM's plan 'unravelling'

As a result, the court decided sending anyone to Rwanda would constitute a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, "with which parliament has required that the government must comply."

Yvette Cooper, Labour's Shadow Home Secretary, said the judgement "shows that Rishi Sunak has no plan to fix the Tories' small boats chaos and his only idea is completely unravelling".

She added: "Ministers were forced to admit this week that it will cost £169,000 to send each person to Rwanda on top of the £140m of taxpayers' money they have already spent. Now the court has found that ministers didn't even do the basic work to make sure the scheme was legal or safe."

Downing Street refused to say whether it still believes any migrants will be sent to Rwanda before the next election.

However, Mr Sunak's official spokesperson denied that this decision will delay the prime minister's pledge to "stop the boats", saying the Rwanda scheme is "one element" of the plan to reduce migration.

Ms Braverman will make a statement in the House of Commons later on Thursday, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt said.

The government wants to send tens of thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles away to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal agreed with the government in Kigali last year.

The policy was introduced under Boris Johnson but has been pushed forward by his successors as part of their plans to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel.

However, no one has made the journey yet.

The first flight was stopped at the eleventh hour in June last year after an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.