Ministers have been forced into a humiliating climbdown over deportation flights to Rwanda.
Home Secretary Priti Patel had signalled a plane would fly Channel migrants to Kigali before the result of a judicial review due next month.
But Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab indicated removals would be halted until after the High Court judgement.
Asked when the first asylum seekers will be deported to Rwanda, ex-human rights lawyer Mr Raab admitted: "I don't think I can give a precise date."
He added: "The important thing to understand is that this ongoing legal challenge has been around the injunctions.
"There is a full hearing due in a few weeks and all the issues can be aired there."
Asked if he would stake his professional reputation on saying that at least one migrant will be taken to Rwanda by the end of the year, Mr Raab said: "Well, I don't quite know what the courts are going to decide on the main hearing.
"What I can tell you is that I'm very confident that we set out a sensible, proportionate plan, which, far from eroding human rights, will protect human rights because it will help stem this trade in migrants, this trade in human misery."
He said the Government would “adhere” to the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling.
It comes after Ms Patel told MPs: "This Government will not be deterred from doing the right thing.
“We will not be put off by the inevitable legal last-minute challenges.”
A Whitehall source said on Wednesday that a new deportation flight could take off for Kigali within weeks - before a key ruling over the policy.
But confusion deepened as Mr Raab suggested today that the planes would not take off until after the judgement.
And ex-Tory leadership hopeful Mr Raab also insisted the Government did not plan to quit the European Convention of Human Rights after the court which enforces the ECHR effectively blocked Tuesday’s Boeing 767 aircraft from taking off for east Africa.
"Our plans involve staying within the Convention, the European Convention. It is also important the Strasbourg court reflects and stays faithful to its mandate as part of the convention," he said.
No10 repeatedly refused to rule out quitting the Strasbourg-based ECHR after it stopped Tuesday’s flight.
