“One million refugees entered Europe in 2015. I want Britain to take its fair share and to engage with our European partners. Then we could come up with ways of having safe routes. There must be a way of dealing with this that doesn’t involve turning our backs on refugees as well as our partners in Europe.

“The reality is we are not going to turn off the tap. Most of them are not economic migrants. The UN is clear that 94% of those going to Lesbos were refugees. We should open our arms to them.

“I’m not saying we should do the same as Angela Merkel, but we also should not go to the other extreme which is what the PM is doing. What do we do? You can pick them up in the Mediterranean and have safe routes. Also, there could be centres where people can claim asylum safely.

“We cannot turn our back on the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War, yet the PM is acting as if he is neutral“