Twenty minutes later Mr Robbins was told to leave the session.

Mr Vaz said: "I'm going to excuse you from this committee because I think your evidence so far has been unsatisfactory."

Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, last month accused the Home Office of hiding £88m cuts to the budget amid heightened terror concerns in the wake of the Brussels attacks.

Sir Charles Montgomery, the UK Border Force director general who reports to Mr Robbins, previously told the committee he expected to know the figure by the start of the financial year on April 1.

Mr Robbins said it was "not easy to answer it in a simple yes or no".