One of the 84 Church of England bishops who publicly pressed David Cameron to allow more Syrian refugees into Britain last night said he would not take any into his own six-bedroom mansion.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev David Walker, urged ordinary people to welcome asylum seekers from the war-torn country and said it would be ‘a sad reflection’ on society if they did not.

He claimed, however, that it would be wrong for a refugee family to move into his own recently refurbished house because of the language barrier and their ‘alien culture’.

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The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev David Walker, who has said he would not take any refugees into his own six-bedroom mansion

Britain intends to give new homes to 20,000 refugees who are in camps close to Syria and who have not tried to reach Europe.

But yesterday, in a blaze of publicity, the 84 bishops released a letter they had sent privately to Mr Cameron in September urging him to allow at least 50,000 refugees into the country over the next five years, saying that this would bring Britain into line with the generosity of other countries.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, has offered a cottage in the grounds of Lambeth Palace for use by Syrian refugees.

CHURCH SPLIT ON CALL TO TAKE MORE SYRIANS The third most senior bishop in the Church of England refused to sign the joint letter to David Cameron. The Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres signalled dissent by withholding his signature. He put out a separate statement on the refugee crisis, in which he avoided putting any figure on the number of Syrian refugees that should be brought into Britain. Dr Chartres, 68, said: ‘We are only at the beginning of a global refugee crisis. ‘It is not just a question of responding to the current wave of displaced people entering the European Union but devising long-term strategies for huge population movements not confined to the Middle East.’ Neither the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby nor his number two, the Archbishop of York, signed the letter. Church officials said that they do not add their names to round robins. Publication of the bishops’ letter, in which they said Britain should take 50,000 Syrian refugees, came a week after a dozen retired judges and 300 liberal and Left-wing lawyers signed a similar petition which said the Government offer to take 20,000 was ‘too low, too slow and too narrow’. The bishops’ target of 50,000 refugees is also the same as that set out by former Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper on September 7, three days before the bishops sent their letter to Downing Street. The bishops warned Mr Cameron ‘This letter is written to you privately at present’ – and set a deadline of September 17 for the Prime Minister to reply to ‘help our discussions’. A Downing Street spokesman said last night: ‘The UK is the second largest donor in the world after America, helping refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Our total contribution to the Syrian crisis is more than £1.12billion.’ Advertisement

Bishop Walker said his Manchester diocese had made available an empty vicarage for a refugee family, but he told Sky News that he would not offer his own home.

Bishopscourt in Salford, home to the bishops of Manchester since the 1870s, has large landscaped grounds and outbuildings. It is hidden from the street by a high brick wall, and passers-by can view no more than the driveway curving up to the house.

Bishop Walker’s two children have grown up and, while the house is used as diocesan offices, its only full-time inhabitants are the 58-year-old bishop and his wife Susan.

He said: ‘I have got a smallish house by bishops’ standards, a relatively modern house. It is adequate for our purposes, it allows us to entertain guests when we need to do so, but it has not got hundreds of spare bedrooms kicking around.

‘I think in any case what most refugees need, as well as the vicarage we have supplied elsewhere in Manchester, is self-contained accommodation, a place where they can be with their families, not try to share the breakfast table with a couple whose language they don’t understand and whose culture is alien to them.’

The bishop added: ‘Let’s get people in the places were they can feel safety and security, supported by the charities, the churches, the public and the business sector, in the way that British people have always done.’

Bishop Walker said that the 50,000 refugees the CofE letter says should be admitted to Britain ‘is a small number’, adding: ‘It would be less than one new person for every 1,000 people in the country.

‘If 1,000 British citizens cannot between them welcome and bring into the community one refugee each then I think it is a sad reflection on a society that has had a long-standing reputation for responding to refugee crises.’

There has been tension between clergy and some churchgoers over the scale of the ‘see houses’ the CofE provides for its senior bishops. While a diocesan bishop is paid only £42,000 a year, he or she has a house provided free and the help of staff paid by the Church, including, in some cases, gardeners and chauffeurs.

In 2013 the average value of a diocesan see house was more than £2.25million, and the value of the entire estate of their homes is now more than £100million.

The house used by Bishop Walker was completely refurbished in 2013 before he took up his post.

Bishopscourt in Salford, pictured, home to the bishops of Manchester since the 1870s, has large landscaped grounds and outbuildings

Last night Church officials indicated that three of its six bedrooms were used by the bishop’s family. Another bedroom serves as the bishop wife’s office and the two remaining rooms were said to be in regular use for official guests.

During his interview Bishop Walker claimed that admitting more refugees would strengthen the economy because they tended to be ‘young, fit, able and desiring to work’.