Eighty years ago, Britain gave me a lifeline. It was 1939 and the Nazis had invaded Czechoslovakia. I, like hundreds of other children, was bundled on to a train out of Prague with little more than some clothes and a packed lunch my mother had made to keep me from going hungry on the long trip to England. I didn’t understand why this was happening. Nor did I know, as I sat in my train carriage trundling through Europe, that I was not only on a journey to a new country – I was starting a whole new life.

Britain offered me sanctuary and it became my home. Most importantly of all, though I didn’t understand that then, Britain gave me safety, which meant that I could make plans for my future and realise those plans.

Now, when I look at the images of refugees drowning in the Mediterranean, I often think back to that little boy on a train crossing Europe. They too are fleeing death and destruction. They too want nothing more than safety. Like me, they are forced to look beyond their countries’ borders for help.

However, 80 years after the UK helped me, Britain is now denying similar help to other refugee children. There are 3,400 unaccompanied refugee children in Greece. More arrive daily. So far the UK government has taken just 15.

But I would be naive if I thought that it is only refugees who were suffering mistreatment. In different ways, British citizens too are victims of an insidious political narrative that blames and punishes the vulnerable, the disabled and the poor, victimises minorities and deliberately divides communities. The evidence is clear: queues at food banks, rising homelessness, bulging prisons and an increase in hate crimes. Refugees are the thin end of the wedge.

‘The far right in countries such as Hungary, Italy and Germany wish to exploit the issue of refugees for their own political ends.’ Demonstrators from the Italian far-right movement CasaPound. Photograph: Stefano Montesi - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Across Europe we are seeing a sinister development: the rise of the far right in countries such as Hungary, Italy and Germany, which wishes to exploit the issue of refugees for its own political ends. In this country, inequality is rising. We face a mental-health crisis. The environment is being destroyed. Trust in politicians is at an all-time low.

For many years I have worked with inspiring individuals to combat injustice. I have been proud of the achievements of the causes I support – from Safe Passage and Help Refugees to the Refugee Council and Liberty. But I have also realised that unless we change the values that underlie our politics, we cannot have a compassionate and just society.

That is why this Saturday I will be speaking at the launch of Compassion in Politics, a new cross-party initiative that aims to put compassion, empathy, and cooperation at the heart of politics.

Together we will overturn the oppressive narrative that says that all humans are just greedy and selfish and our political system and society must be built in that image. We will point to the founding of the NHS, the Kindertransport that gave me hope, and the many young volunteers who give up years of their lives for virtually no money helping in the refugee camps in France, Greece and elsewhere, as examples of British compassion. We will argue that a political system and political ideas that reflect and encourage our own innate ability to feel compassion would make for a happier, more equal, just and productive society. And we will propose that in future all new policies will need to be judged by the extent to which they are built on and promote compassionate values.

The experiences of my childhood mean I can never claim to be from one place or another. But I think I have benefited greatly through my life by meeting others like me who feel they belong nowhere – or everywhere. Those powerful friendships are far more important to me than any arbitrary divisions governments create between communities and nations.

Ideas, values, and love do not stop at borders; they are not the property of one class or race; and they grow stronger, not weaker, in the face of hate. Compassion in Politics is about proving that to be the case and creating a platform from which a new political programme – one built on cooperation, compassion, and empathy – can emerge. I am excited about what this project can achieve.

• Alf Dubs is a Labour party peer and former MP