Farron: Child refugees vote reveals Tory MPs’ true colours

Responding to today’s Commons vote on protecting child refugees, Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said that Tory MPs had “earned the labels” of “insular and inhumane” by voting against the cross-party amendment.

Tim Farron

Every Liberal Democrat MP voted for an opposition amendment to the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to retain a statutory duty on the Government to negotiate an agreement with the EU that protects family reunion rights for unaccompanied child refugees in Europe. However, Conservative MPs voted down the amendment by 348 votes to 252.

Responding to the vote, Tim Farron said: “Tory MPs love to talk about ‘global Britain’ and claim that Brexit is really some great internationalist project. By turning their backs on child refugees they have shown it is anything but.

“These Tory MPs get irritated when they are labelled as insular and inhumane, but by blocking our amendment today they have earned those labels.

“We must do all we can to protect child refugees and Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for them – including when this Bill moves to the House of Lords.”

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