PM criticises bishops for failing to acknowledge extent of British aid to refugees in Middle East after they urged UK to accept more people fleeing Syria

David Cameron has vented his frustration with the Church of England over Syria by calling on bishops to make “an in-depth intervention” to acknowledge the £1bn in aid the UK has provided to refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries.

The prime minister, who announced that Britain is to admit 1,000 refugees by Christmas, said that the Anglican bishops were wrong to criticise him for ignoring their plea to admit 50,000 refugees.

Cameron criticised the Church of England after bishops released a private letter to the prime minister in which they called on him to agree to a dramatic increase in the number of Syrian refugees over the next five years – from 20,000 to 50,000.

The prime minister came close to accusing the bishops of encouraging Syrian refugees to make the “dangerous journey” to Europe. He said that anyone advocating UK involvement in an EU quota system for refugees was encouraging the refugees to risk perilous journeys across the Mediterranean to the EU – usually to Greece.

In their letter to the prime minister the bishops did not call on Britain to take part in the EU quota system, which would have obliged the UK to take 18,000 refugees on a rapid timetable. But the bishops did say that the UK should bring itself into line with other countries by admitting 50,000 refugees over five years rather than the 20,000 proposed by Cameron.

The prime minister told MPs that Britain was starting to accelerate the admission of Syrian refugees to Britain from camps in neighbouring countries. But he rebuked the 84 bishops for failing to acknowledge the £1bn in aid provided by Britain to Syrian refugees since 2012, which is designed to encourage them to remain in neighbouring countries rather than making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. The 20,000 refugees that will be allowed into Britain over the next five years will be taken from the camps in Syria’s neighbouring countries.

Cameron said: “We want to see 1,000 refugees brought to Britain by Christmas. We will report on that after Christmas to tell you how we have done.”

The prime minister, who once likened his Anglicanism to the patchy reception for Magic FM in the Chilterns, then turned on the bishops. He said: “On the bishops no one has more respect for the bishops than me. But on this occasion, I think they are wrong and I will say so very frankly.

“I think the right thing to do is to take 20,000 refugees from the camps. If you become part of the mechanism distributing people around the EU you are encouraging people to make that dangerous journey.

“I would now like to see the bishops make a very clear statement, as [Jeremy Corbyn] just did, which is Britain has fulfilled our moral obligations by making a promise to the poorest countries and the poorest people in the world of spending 0.7% of our gross national income on aid. How many other of the other big countries that made that promise have kept that promise. So let us hear an in-depth intervention from the bishops on that issue.”

The prime minister criticised the bishops after Corbyn called on Britain to act in a coordinated way with fellow EU nations as he raised concerns that member states were seeking to outsource the refugee crisis to Turkey.

The Labour leader told Cameron: “We are concerned that some within Europe would like to outsource the refugee crisis to Turkey to solve it. There is a responsibility for all European nations to act in a coordinated way, firstly to help the refugees and secondly to try and resolve the conflict that is driving so many Syrians to flee.

“I have said it before and I will repeat it in the house today; I praise this government for the level of aid they have provided for the camps in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region ... However, we must do more to aid those who have come to Europe.”