LAST-DITCH efforts today to stop a “racist” deportation flight to Jamaica that is expected to leave tomorrow morning were rejected by the High Court last night.

A group of lawyers, campaigners and relatives said the “last hope is now the Court of Appeal and out-of-hours application. 

“Detainees are being put on lockdown and they prepare for deportations.

“We remember Jimmy Mubenga and Joy Gardener,” it added, referring to two detainees who were killed on deportation flights.

Law firm Duncan Lewis, representing 15 people on the flight, had filed an application for a judicial review at the High Court.

The 50 people due to be sent to Jamaica include fathers who came to Britain as children and alleged victims of “county lines” drug-trafficking.

Asking an urgent question in the Commons today, Labour MP David Lammy accused the government of hypocrisy on the issue.

“We cannot at the same time in this house condemn county lines, and those who would pimp young black children in this country, [while sending] those same children back to Jamaica for such drug offences,” he argued.

Mr Lammy had demanded explanations for the delay in publication of the Windrush Lessons Learned review and the implications it could have for the widely opposed deportation flight.

Speaking on behalf of Home Secretary Priti Patel, Tory MP Kevin Foster claimed that victims of the Windrush scandal “should not be conflated” with those expected to be deported tomorrow.  

He reiterated the Home Office’s allegation that all the deportees are “serious criminals.”

But Mr Lammy hit back: “In light of the scandal of people who arrived in this country as children, how can he guarantee that there are not people on those flights who are actually British nationals?”

Today’s legal challenge called for the flight to be halted on the grounds that detainees have struggled to access legal advice and concerns over the Home Office exaggerating the severity of their crimes.

Toufique Hossain, director of public law at Duncan Lewis, argued that there needs to be a “proper overview and consideration” given to how the Home Office approach individuals who have lived in Britain “for most of their lives.”

They include 32-year-old Rupert, who came to Britain at the age of 13 and has three children with his long-term partner, plus two step-children.

Calling from Brook House immigration detention centre ahead of the flight, Rupert told the Star: “All my family is here, all my friends. I went to school here. I went to college here. I’ve been away from that country for 20 years.”

Anti-racist groups BAME Lawyers for Justice and Black Activists Rising Against Cuts rallied outside Downing Street today to oppose the “racist” charter flight, while a vigil was expected to be held in Oxford.