The government has previously said it has been at the forefront of the global response to the crisis in Syria, a result of a civil war between the government led by President Assad and various rebel groups.
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But Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that 20,000 refugees would be brought from refugee camps in countries bordering Syria into the United Kingdom by 2020.
He added: ” We are providing more than £1.1 billion in humanitarian aid and have also taken in more than 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers since 2011.
“Given the vulnerability of the people coming here, given that the majority of them will be in families, we’d rather use the volunteers in other ways”.
Britain is still taking the same number of Syrian refugees as it was before David Cameron pledged to increase numbers to 20,000, the Government has admitted. The total has since risen to 4,469 supporters.
Activists will today lay wreaths in Westminster in memory of six children who died in refugee camps last winter because of the extreme cold.
But Mr Harrington, a Conservative MP, signalled the Government has rejected a fast-track approach as other countries had “messed up” because refugees were welcomed with “cheering” before being “forgotten”.
Universities have pledged £3.5million worth of scholarships for 147 Syrians, and 727 private landlords have registered their properties to be used by refugees fleeing bloodthirsty Islamic State extremists and President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime. “If every county and city took 10 families we could help 10,000 people over the next year alone”.
When pressed on larger organisations such as faith groups offering accommodation, he was more open to the prospect.
But he said they would have to provide “comparable accommodation to, say, housing associations”.
Cooper will step up the pressure on the government to act after a panel of retired law lords described the government’s plan to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees over the course of this parliament as “too low, too slow and too narrow”.
He said: “I would say the pace of people arriving is much the same as it has been over the last few months and it is now gathering traction”.
This commitment is not headline grabbing but, in the long term, I believe it will be more effective because no single country, and not even the all the countries of the European Union, can give homes to all the people who now need them. “This is not a football game”, and suggested re-settlement in haste had undermined efforts elsewhere.
But sources said just 50 have come to Britain since his announcement – and the Home Office has refused to reveal how many had arrived.
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His refusal to disclose the information drew criticism from Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee.
