Council leaders are calling on the Government to maintain its commitment to vulnerable child refugees after the Home Office cited local authority funding as part of the decision to scrap the scheme.

At least eight London councillors have signed an open letter urging Theresa May to reconsider the decision to “snatch this lifeline” from thousands of lone asylum seekers under the age of 15, implemented under the Dubs Amendment last year.

It came after Home Secretary Amber Rudd suggested local authorities had been struggling to cope with the financial pressures of the humanitarian effort.

“We call on the Government to re-consult with council leaders, reconsider the support given this important programme, and above all not to snatch this lifeline from thousands of desperate children in need,” the councillors wrote in the letter, signed by leaders of Hammersmith & Fulham, Gedling Council, Camden, Ealing, Lambeth, Hounslow, Royal Borough of Greenwich and Lewisham.

Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor Steve Cowan claimed he contacted the Home Office on multiple occasions offering to take on more children, but received no response.

“Despite our offer and despite our pestering, they have only given us 13 children, I don't know if its confidence or if it's a deliberate attempt not to let the children in, but I just don't believe it,” he told Sky News.

“There’s councils across the country, many in London, ready to step up - this is a humanitarian crisis.”

The Government’s early closure of the Dubs programme after just six months provoked widespread anger, with just 200 lone children in Europe being given safe passage. The scheme is set to close once a further 150 arrive in the UK, however legal challenges to the U-turn are reportedly already being prepared.

Ms Rudd defended the reversal claiming the programme could “incentivise” lone refugee children to come to Europe.

Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Show all 13 1 /13 Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Volunteers walk a group of refugee children towards their school on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Refugee children pose at a makeshift camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A Syrian Kurd mother combs Roza's hair, as she prepares to go to a volunteer-run school in a refugee camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Refugee children attend an English language class at the volunteer run school on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Refugee children carry vegetables in a refugee camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A newly arrived Syrian refugee, 13, holds her sister, 2, in a makeshift camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Refugee children pretend they go to school as they play in a refugee camp in the island AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A Greek girl walks past a graffiti on her way to a school on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A Malian refugee child poses from behind a fence in a makeshift camp AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A Syrian Kurd mother combs Roza's hair, as she prepares to go to a volunteer-run school in a refugee camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A Syrian family from Aleppo newly arrived to Greece sits in a makeshift camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A child carries a broken blackgammon game in a makeshift camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees Inside the classroom with Chios's child refugees A child holds onto her mother, Djeneba from Mali, before attending school in a refugee camp on the island of Chios AFP/Getty

"I am clear that when working with my French counterparts they do not want us to indefinitely continue to accept children under the Dubs Amendment because they specify, and I agree with them, that it acts as a draw. It acts as a pull,” she said.

"It encourages the people traffickers."

However, refugee charity Safe Passage said the move would achieve the opposite.

“This announcement risks driving hundreds of street homeless children into the hands of the same traffickers Theresa May spent her time as Home Secretary fighting so determinedly against,” Safe Passage spokesperson Rabbi Janet Darley said.

Lord Dubs, who himself was one of 669 refugee children rescued from the Nazis, called the Government U-turn “shameful”.

“I believe in arbitrarily closing down a scheme without any good reason for doing so, the Government is in breach of its commitments,” he said.

Speaking on Thursday, Theresa May said she thought the Government approach was "absolutely right”.

"We have been seeing quite a number of children and families being resettled here in the United Kingdom,” she said.