George Osborne: criminal gangs ‘killed’ the drowned refugee boy

George Osborne has given the first official comments today regarding the ongoing migrant crisis. The Chancellor told Sky News he was ‘very distressed’ at the picture on the front pages of today’s newspapers and argued criminal gangs are responsible for the death of the drowned boy:

‘(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 and the criminal gangs who killed that boy, you’ve got to make sure the aid keeps coming. We’ve put £1 billion of overseas aid in to help these desperate people. And, of course, Britain has always been a home to real asylum seekers, genuine refugees. We’ve taken 5,000 people from the Syrian conflict.