A raft of millionaire luvvies last night demanded Britain wave in hundreds of migrant children living in the Calais Jungle.

Stars including Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry and Jude Law are among 145 to put their name to a letter calling on David Cameron to let children living in Calais’s migrant camps into the UK.

Other signatories of the letter are actress Helena Bonham Carter, Match of the Day presenter and former England football striker Gary Lineker, and actors Idris Elba and Colin Firth.

The letter is a response to impending moves by the French authorities to demolish the southern part of the infamous Jungle camp.

Stars including Benedict Cumberbatch, pictured with wife Sophiue Hunter, are among 145 to put their name to a letter calling on David Cameron to let children living in Calais’s migrant camps into the UK.

Luther star Idris Elba, pictured here at the Bafta after party, is among those to sign the letter addressed to David Cameron

Charities working in the camps say this will destroy the homes of 3,000 people, including hundreds of children. It would, they claim, ‘uproot again those who have already had to abandon their homes due to war and persecution’.

But critics point out that many of those living in the Calais jungle are economic migrants simply trying to get into Britain for a better life.

Ministers have resisted calls to take more migrants from the continent – for fear it will encourage others to risk their lives trying to get to Europe.

Any move to bring large numbers of people from the Jungle to Britain would also risk making the problems in Northern France worse.

Bizarrely, the letter includes demands that the PM persuade the French authorities to start looking after the children properly and stop bulldozing parts of the camp.

The letter, which has also been signed by Steve Coogan, Jemima Khan and Richard Curtis, calls on David Cameron to ‘intervene as a matter of urgency in the refugee crisis in Calais and Dunkirk’.

BBC BIAS 1: KINNOCK'S WILD EXPORTS CLAIM UNCHALLENGED Neil Kinnock was given a platform by the BBC to peddle myths about what he claimed were the ‘seismic’ effects of Brexit. The former Labour leader and ex–European commissioner appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday to say leaving the EU would be like ‘jumping off a cliff’. He reeled off doubtful economic statistics on the consequences of a ‘leap in the dark’. Lord Kinnock claimed we sell 51 per cent of our exported goods to the rest of the EU while they sell less than 9 per cent of their goods to us. In reality, the EU accounted for 47 per cent of our exports last year and 16 per cent of EU exports came here. The claim was not challenged by the presenter Sarah Montague. ‘So much for BBC balance,’ said Tory MP Andrew Bridgen. ‘It looks as if Kinnock’s volte face since his 1975 opposition to Europe could be linked to the BBC’s interests – both receive huge amounts of money from the European Union.’ Lord Kinnock had told Radio 4: ‘The choice in the referendum is whether we stay in or come out; whether we jump off the edge of the cliff.’ He warned that leaving the EU would ‘propel us towards an absolutely unknown, uncertain future in which our economic stability and indeed our political significance is hugely put at risk and diminished’. He said David Cameron should be more like Margaret Thatcher: ‘If he had taken a leaf out of the book written by Mrs Thatcher when she was prime minister. ‘Her commitment in the European Union was very firm. The commission that she gave to our civil servants and other representatives inside what was then the European Community was to get the best possible deal.’ Advertisement

It risks a further backlash against celebrities who inflict their moralising on the public.

Last year Mr Cumberbatch was criticised for subjecting West End audiences watching him in Hamlet to demands for more to be done to resolve the refugee crisis in Europe.

This week actress Emma Thompson - who has not signed the new letter - drew fire for weighing in to the EU referendum debate and describing Britain as a ‘cakefilled, misery laden, grey old island’.

Other signatories of the letter are Stephen Fry, shown, Match of the Day presenter and former England football striker Gary Lineker, and actors Idris Elba and Colin Firth

A migrant walks by a 'jungle' sign in the tents and huts of the makeshift camp called 'The Jungle' next to the fenced area made of containers recycled in rooms in Calais, France

The letter reads: ‘This is a humanitarian crisis that needs to be acknowledged as such and it is imperative that we do everything we can to help these innocent and highly vulnerable refugees, especially the minors, as swiftly as is humanly possible.

‘The recent announcement by the Calais prefecture to raze the Southern part of the “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais is an act that if allowed to happen, will destroy the temporary homes of over 3,000 people including 443 children.

BBC BIAS 2: NO CHECKS ON PRO-BRUSSELS VIEWS The BBC is refusing to monitor its network for bias during the EU referendum campaign. Sir Bill Cash, who chairs the European scrutiny committee, has called on corporation executives to set up a system to log news and current affairs coverage. This would allow the BBC’s output to be analysed to check whether the corporation is fulfilling its duty to be ‘impartial’, he said. But yesterday the BBC Trust, which is the corporation’s governing body, rejected the suggestion, saying such a system would be both too expensive and ‘disproportionate’. The row erupted after the trust published its guidelines for how the corporation will cover the referendum campaign. The BBC has been told not to commission opinion polls during the campaign, after polls published during last year’s general election proved to be wildly inaccurate. It has also been told to treat polls published by others with caution. Controversially, the trust said journalists were allowed to use the word Europe when talking about the European Union as long as the ‘context was entirely clear’. Sir Bill said: ‘It’s just not good enough to say all this can be left to editors. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it badly wrong.’ A BBC spokesman pointed to earlier comments from James Harding, the corporation’s director of news, who said he worried monitoring systems would be ‘would be unreliable rather than reliable’. Such a system might ‘hem in’ the makers of programmes, he said. BBC chiefs will not be obliged to make sure that the views of the two official campaign groups are given equal exposure at all times, but will be required to focus on finding ‘broad balance’ between the arguments. Advertisement

‘Many of these people are among the most vulnerable in the camps as this is where the majority of families and unaccompanied minors currently live.

‘Such an enforced move would uproot again those who have already had to abandon their homes due to war and persecution.

The signatories say the eviction threatens ‘community facilities’ such as three mosques, a library and a theatre.

‘These spaces offer much-needed respite and comfort for all those living in the intensely difficult conditions within the camp,’ the letter says.

Those backing the letter call on ministers to allow all under 18s with family connections in the UK to come to Britain to be ‘reunited’ with their families.

They say the British government should ensure those without a legal right to be in the UK be looked after properly by the French.

The letter calls on David Cameron, pictured, to let children living in Calais’s migrant camps into the UK

And they say ministers should persuade the French to stop bulldozing other parts of the camp until children living there are ‘either given child protection within the French system or enabled to reunite with their loved ones in Britain.’

They say: ‘We believe the above actions are the absolute minimum that the British government should be taking to alleviate the suffering of the refugees in Calais, and must be made an urgent priority.

Last night, father-of-five Law said: ‘Last week I visited the camp, and met some of these unaccompanied children who have no choice but to endure the horrific conditions of the Jungle.

‘These are innocent, vulnerable children caught up in red tape with the frightening prospect of the demolition of the Jungle hanging over them.

‘David Cameron and the British Government must urgently work with the French authorities to alleviate this humanitarian crisis.’

According to charity Help Refugees, which helped organise the letter, there are 400 children living in this section of the camp, 291 of whom are unaccompanied.