Liberal Democrats in Lichfield say the Government’s response to the refugee crisis has been “pitiful”.
The party’s leader Tim Farron revealed that Britain has so far taken in 5,000 with the promise of homes for a further 20,000 over the next five years, while Germany has agreed to take hundreds of thousands.
Local Lib Dem spokesman Paul Ray said the Conservative government’s response to the crisis had been pitiful – and called for a fairer share of refugees to be taken in.
“Britain has a long tradition of welcoming refugees who are fleeing from repression and war,” he said. “David Cameron was forced by public opinion to shift from agreeing to hardly any refugees being welcomed in Britain to 20,000 over the next five years.
“This is still a pitiful response to the crisis when compared to a small EU country such as Sweden where the population is a sixth of our’s yet they took in 80,000 last year and expects to take in a similar number in 2015.
“We are seeing on Europe’s doorsteps a humanitarian crisis and Britain cannot stand idly by, leaving it to other European nations to step in and help out.
“David Cameron must stand up to the Right Wing of the Conservative Party and go down a humanitarian, compassionate road which understands that people in desperate need should be helped.”
Mr Ray – who stood as the party’s Parliamentary candidate in the general election earlier this year, said that the UK needed to return to its roots in order to help those in need.
“Britain has a proud tradition of giving a safe haven to refugees for example to Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust and Ugandan Asians in the early 1970s,” he explained.
“This is the Britain which I want to live in and 20,000 places over five years will be no use today. The crisis is now.”
