Prime minister’s comments come after widespread criticism of his refusal to consider taking in more refugees

David Cameron has responded to growing international and domestic pressure for Britain to take more refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war and other conflicts by saying that the UK would fulfil its moral responsibilities.

In a marked shift of tone, as Europe’s human rights watchdog criticised Britain for failing to offer shelter, Cameron spoke of how moved he was by the picture of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach.

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Speaking at a Hitachi train plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, the prime minister said: “Anyone who saw those pictures overnight could not help but be moved and, as a father, I felt deeply moved by the sight of that young boy on a beach in Turkey. Britain is a moral nation and we will fulfil our moral responsibilities.

“We are taking thousands of people, and we will take thousands of people.”

His remarks stopped short, however, of a specific commitment to take more refugees. Cameron said he would keep the issue under review, a stance that gives Whitehall time to work out a scheme with the Home Office, local councils and international agencies.

Cameron stressed that Britain had already stepped up to meet the challenge of the refugee crisis facing Europe by assisting in the rescue mission in the Mediterranean, spending 0.7% of GDP on international aid and donating money to fund Syrian refugee camps in the Middle East.

He insisted, however, that taking more refugees was not the only answer to the problem. “We need a comprehensive solution, a new government in Libya, we need to deal with the problems in Syria.

“I would say the people responsible for these terrible scenes we see, the people most responsible, are President Assad in Syria and the butchers of Isil [Islamic State] and the criminal gangs that are running this terrible trade in people. And we have to be as tough on them at the same time.”

The prime minister’s intervention came as he faced growing domestic and international pressure, including from within his own party, to start to take the numbers already being taken elsewhere in Europe.

The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, accused him of adopting a “walk on by on the other side” approach after he said on Wednesday that the UK would not take any extra refugees.

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Harriet Harman, the interim Labour leader, has called on Cameron to convene an emergency meeting of Cobra cabinet committee to coordinate the government response.



The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, stepped up her criticism of his refusal to accept more than a few hundred refugees. “It is shameful, utterly shameful, that our prime minister is just turning his back,” she said.

“My problem with the prime minister’s response is that he only wants to talk about the things that he will do to help far away, but he won’t actually do anything here at home. We have a responsibility to act.”

London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, became the most senior Conservative to call for more action, saying it was Britain’s moral responsibility to take those fleeing persecution. But he said the UK must not become a magnet or pole of attraction for “economic migrants”.

Johnson said it was time to look harder at resolving the Syrian problem. “No one would say non-intervention is working,” he said.

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The chancellor, George Osborne, speaking during a factory visit in Sunderland, said: “There is no person who would not be very shocked by that picture – and I was very distressed when I saw it myself this morning – of that poor boy lying dead on the beach.

“We know there is not a simple answer to this crisis. What you need to do is first of all tackle Isis [Islamic State] and the criminal gangs who killed that boy.”

In a letter to Cameron, Harman urged him to adopt a four-point plan to help more refugees. She urged him to:

Agree now that Britain will take more refugees, both directly from Syria and from the southern European countries where most refugees have arrived.

Convene an urgent meeting of EU leaders next week to agree a process for resolving the immediate refugee crisis on Europe’s borders.

Convene an urgent meeting of Cobra so that a cross-government plan can be agreed and implemented. This was now a problem spanning beyond the Home Office, affecting transport, small business, tourism and local communities, she said.

Bring together a summit of local authority leaders to agree a framework on what more can be done locally to support refugees and asylum seekers.

She added: “We are all proud of Britain’s historical role of offering a sanctuary to those fleeing conflict and persecution. We are an outward-facing, generous-hearted nation, not one that turns inward and shirks its responsibilities. I know you will not want to be the prime minister of a government that fails to offer sanctuary while our neighbours are stepping up to respond.”