Cameron posturing over Syrian refugees, backbencher claims

The change of heart by the coalition – confirmed by Home Secretary Theresa May in a Commons statement ahead of an opposition day debate on the issue – was broadly welcomed by MPs on all sides of the House.

However, the move angered some Conservative MPs who said the Prime Minister should have stuck to his position that Britain could best help the millions displaced by the conflict by sending aid to the region rather than re-locating small numbers to the UK.

Tory backbencher Andrew Bridgen said Britain had already donated £600m – more than the rest of the EU put together – and that admitting a few hundred people would make little difference to such a vast refugee crisis.

“It is pure political posturing and tokenism. I think that people can see the political expediency of the U-turn,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.

“It is very attractive for someone having their cornflakes tomorrow morning to read on the front page of the paper that we are doing our bit. The UK was already doing its bit”

In the Commons, Mrs May said the “new vulnerable person relocation scheme” would be targeted on the refugees considered to be most at risk, including the survivors of torture and sexual violence.

“Some of the worst abuses in the Syrian conflict involve the use of sexual violence including in regime detention centres,” she said.

“We will be providing emergency sanctuary to people who are most at risk including victims of torture and violence.”

She stressed the UK was not signing up to the quota scheme run by the UNHCR – the United Nations refugee agency – which aims to re-locate 33,000 vulnerable refugees and that the British programme would operate alongside it.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, said the Government had bowed to pressure after Labour, the Liberal Democrats and some Tory MPs had all called for Ministers to back down and accept refugees direct from the region.

“Compassion and common sense have prevailed over the Government’s resistance last week,” she said.

“Britain has a long history helping those fleeing terror and persecution and we should stand together in this House to support that tradition now.”

Tory MP Sir Gerald Howarth provoked cries of “shame” when he suggested that as a “Christian country” Britain should be “prioritising” Syrian Christians who had suffered persecution when it came to deciding which refugees to accept.

Suggestions that Christians should be prioritised were criticised during a later debate on the UK’s participation in the UNHCR Syrian Refugees Programme.

Conservative former Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: “It is undeniably true the Christian community in the Middle East has been under particularly severe pressure in a region where lots of people have suffered.

“But the answer is not to single them out, it is to say that the rule of law has got to protect all.”

Sir Menzies Campbell said he strongly supported Mr Burt’s comments, adding: “The whole point about humanitarian recognition is it should be universal and anything less than that is of considerable damage to the obligation.”