Amber Rudd blasts MPs for comparing ending Dubs child refugee policy to Donald Trump’s controversial ‘Muslim travel ban’
The Home Secretary insisted ministers were "not pulling up the drawbridge" after the end of the scheme to take in lone children from Europe was announced yesterday
AMBER Rudd has hit back at MPs who compared the Government's decision to cap the number of refugee children coming to Britain with Donald Trump's 'Muslim travel ban'.
The Home Secretary blasted MPs today and insisted ministers were "not pulling up the drawbridge."
Yesterday the Government announced that 350 children would be brought to the UK under the Dubs resettlement scheme - which would then be scrapped. It was expected that around 3,000 children would be permitted to come to the UK under the change to the Immigration Act.
Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said just one further group of 150 unaccompanied children would be allowed into the UK from the Continent.
Theresa May was accused of "betraying" refugee children stranded across Europe last night - and the Archbishop of Canterbury called on the Government to think again over its "regrettable" decision.
But the PM said today that "what we're doing in terms of refugees is absolutely right."
And Home Secretary was forced to defend the decision to end the scheme, and was accused of taking a leaf from President Trump's book - after his controversial 'Muslim travel ban'.
Ms Rudd said: "We are not saying we are closing the door, we are putting up the drawbridge. We are not saying that."
She told MPs "not to fall into the trap of suggesting that we are not a country that is welcoming of refugees, that is stepping up to our obligations, that is supporting with money and with refugee programmes, the most vulnerable."
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But Labour and SNP members said she was sending out the wrong signal.
Labour's Pat McFadden said the decision risked aligning the Government with the US president's "America first" mantra.
SNP home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry also questioned whether the policy was the result of "cosying up" to Mr Trump.
She said the decision was "shabby and deceitful" and the Government tried to sneak it out while MPs were debating the Brexit Bill.
The Home Secretary said she didn't agree with the comparison to President Trump.
"I do not recognise the comparison he is making, and I hope that other members will share in that position."
Mr Trump's travel order barred Syrian refugees from entering the US, and has suspended all refugee applications for 90 days. It has also stopped travel from seven mainly-Muslim countries.
But it has been put on hold after judges ruled it unconstitutional.
Today the Archbishop of Canterbury publicly called on the Government to reconsider.
He said that the decision to stop taking in lone child refugees from Europe was "regrettable" and that he was "saddened and shocked" to hear the news last night.
"We must resist and turn back the worrying trends we are seeing around the world, towards seeing the movement of desperate people as more of a threat to identity and security than an opportunity to do our duty," he said.
"We cannot withdraw from our long and proud history of helping the most vulnerable."