Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has said the scale of legal migration to the UK is "unsustainable" but could not give a date when the numbers will start falling.
He told GB News: "I can't give you a date because we don't know when we'll hear from the courts.
"But I'm very pleased that the High Court resoundingly supported the Government's policy and said it was legal.
"All of those people who said it wasn't were proven wrong.
"The Court of Appeal has heard our case and we're waiting for their judgement.
"We will get those flights in the air as soon as we possibly can because the bill that I'm piloting through Parliament fundamentally changes the system because you can't just tinker with this system.
"Today, there is flagrant abuse of the system. We need an entirely different one and the system that we're building is one where if you come illegally, you will not be allowed to stay here."
In a discussion with Camilla Tominey, he said: "We're getting the National Crime Agency to be smashing the gangs before they've got any get anywhere near the UK and on legal migration, it is far too high and I want to see it come down.
"Legal migration on this scale is unsustainable.
"We've said very clearly that we want to see it fall. I want to see it fall substantially because it's putting pressure on housing and public services on integration and businesses.
"Although of course, we need to show flexibility and need to be helping British workers to get into the workplace, to help people to train and get the skills they need rather than reaching for the easy lever of foreign labour."
He added: "I don't think that arbitrary caps and targets are particularly helpful.
"What I do think is important is that migration is constantly changing, we need the flexibility to respond to changes in the economy or in patterns of behaviour.
"But the good news is that we've now got control of our borders.
"After leaving the European Union, we've created the points-based system, and unlike all of those previous governments who made promises that they couldn't keep because of free movement."