Yvette Cooper MP, Chair of Labour’s Refugee Taskforce, in response to news from Richard Harrington at the Home Affairs Select Committee that the Government will not disclose how many Syrians have been accepted under the Government’s Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme, said:

“This shoddy failure to disclose the number of refugees that have come to our country since the Prime Minister expanded the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme is totally unacceptable.

“Millions of people signed petitions urging the Government to act to help resolve the refugee crisis, thousands have donated clothes and other material and almost 5,000 have offered space in their own home.

“It was this outpouring of support that forced David Cameron into action in the first place.

“But people will start losing confidence in the Government’s ability – and indeed willingness – to deliver on its promise if it does not come clean on the number of refugees that have arrived so far and how many more will have arrived by the end of the year.

“David Cameron should rectify his Minister’s mistake and publish these figures immediately.”