Yvette: UK should let in 10,000 Syrians

YVETTE Cooper yesterday called for Britain to open its doors to 10,000 refugees from Syria.

The Labour leadership candidate and Shadow Home Secretary said the country’s failure to welcome people escaping the Islamic State was ‘immoral’, ‘cowardly’ and ‘not the British way’.

She suggested each town across the country could take ten families and later claimed councils had already started coming forward.

In a speech to the Centre for European Reform in London, Miss Cooper said refugees should be excluded from the Government’s target to reduce net migration below 100,000 a year. She said the Mediterranean crisis was a test of the values professed by Britain and Europe, and both had so far been ‘found wanting’.

‘This has become a humanitarian crisis on a scale we have not seen on our continent since the Second World War. Yet we seem paralysed to respond,’ she said. ‘It’s immoral, it’s cowardly and it’s not the British way.’

She called for a national conference to determine how many places can be offered to refugees.

Her demand for action was backed by the other three leadership candidates. Jeremy Corbyn said the country should welcome ‘a considerable number’ of refugees, while Liz Kendall said ‘thousands more’ could be taken in. Andy Burnham said Britain could win support for its demands for reform to EU freedom of movement rules by showing leadership on the refugee issue.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage agreed that Britain should offer refugee status to ‘a few thousand people’ from Syria but warned that with anyone fleeing war or extreme poverty able to claim asylum in Europe, ‘we’ve lost sight of what is a genuine refugee’.

David Cameron’s spokesman said: ‘The UK has a proud history of providing refuge to those in need and we should continue to do so, while also tackling illegal economic migration.’

Quentin Letts – Page 24