PRITI PATEL’S widely condemned pushback policy could shame the nation, a former director of public prosecutions has warned. 

Cross-bench peer Lord Macdonald of River Glaven said that proposals by the Home Secretary to turn around refugee boats in the Channel would probably be a “highly dangerous manoeuvre” risking damage, injury and even drowning. 

“Those who are familiar with the English Channel know that it is not a hospitable place,” the peer said. “And we all know the craft used by these refugees are flimsy and unseaworthy. 

“So this is a policy, if it were ever to be implemented, that courts disaster.

“It would take just one tragedy to expose this and I would assume to shame our country before the world.”

Lord Macdonald, who headed the Crown Prosecution Service from 2003 to 2008, made the searing comment last night as the House of Lords continued its scrutiny of the Nationality and Borders Bill.

The legislation seeks to give Border Force the power to turn back small boats in the Channel.

The policy faces several legal challenges, including one launched by the trade union representing Border Force staff, PCS. 

Also on Tuesday, six more asylum-seekers who had been jailed for steering boats across the Channel had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal. 

The judge found that the men had been convicted through an “error of law.” 

The decision brings the total number of quashed boat-steering convictions to 11. 

Last year, the Home Office and Crown Prosecution Service brought charges against a large number of asylum-seekers for allegedly facilitating illegal entry to Britain by steering boats packed with refugees. 

Campaigners have accused the Home Office of punishing vulnerable asylum-seekers, rather than the people-smugglers who exploit them.