Yvette Cooper calls on David Cameron to work with the EU to solve refugee crisis

'David Cameron is displaying a stubborn refusal to engage in anything European'

Yvette Cooper meeting refugees in Lesbos (Lisa Dorche)

Yvette Cooper has called on David Cameron to abandon his “stubborn refusal” to work with the European Union to solve the refugee crisis.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent on the Greek island of Lesbos, which faces being overwhelmed by refugees, the former Labour leadership candidate said refugees across Europe were suffering the “consequences of Europe’s failure to act” and attacked the Prime Minister for allowing the desperate to be “caught up in the troubled politics of immigration”.

The chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce and former shadow Home Secretary used the visit, her first to refugee camps in the region, to call for “every British town and city” to step forward to resettle refugees, including refugees who have already reached Europe.

She said a “bottom-up” resettlement plan would pressure the Government to accept 1,000 before Christmas and 10,000 “quickly” afterwards.

Currently the Government has offered to resettle 20,000 refugees over five years and is one of the biggest bilateral donors to aid camps in the Middle East, however campaigners say Britain needs to show leadership and join EU efforts to combat the crisis.

“David Cameron is displaying a stubborn refusal to engage in anything European. Even though the consequences of that felt on the ground here are so painful and actually make it harder for us to solve the crisis,” said Cooper.

She also highlighted the practise of including refugee numbers in net migration figures, and called on the Home Office to fast-track efforts to resettle in the UK refugees who have family here. “The fact that refugees are still part of the Government’s net migration target is shameful and immoral. Refugees should not be caught up in the troubled politics of immigration.”

Bakhtavar Nazary, a 90-year-old Afghan refugee at the Moria camp on Lesbos yesterday (Getty)

Cooper was in Lesbos this week to meet with UNHCR officials struggling to cope with an influx of refugees attempting to reach Europe before the onset of winter.

Ms Cooper has written to David Cameron asking him to propose humanitarian funding for Lesbos at an EU meeting on 25 October in Brussels.