Last year a host of celebrities and politicians alike slammed the government for their handling of the refugee crisis. As part of this, several figures including Sir Bob Geldof, Stan Collymore, Nicola Sturgeon and Yvette Cooper volunteered to take refugees into their home.
Alas, when Mr S checked last year both Geldof and Collymore were yet to go ahead with their pledge. So, what about Cooper? Back in September, the Labour MP said she would be happy to take a refugee in her own home:
‘If that’s what it took and that’s what was needed, then of course, I think lots of people would be.’
However, when Nick Ferrari attempted to quiz Cooper about her refugee intake on LBC, there was a snag.
NF: Have you taken your refugee in yet?
YC: Well, I think we should be offering sanctuary
NF: But have you taken yours yet?
YC: Yeah but I don’t think this is about… I’ve said from the start if people need homes we should be offering…
NF: Have you taken yours yet?
YC: If you listen to what the government’s said, they’ve said no they don’t want people to take them into their homes. What they want is to provide housing for the small number of Syrian refugees who have come over. Where I do think we should help and…
NF: Have you taken yours yet Yvette?
YC: No that’s what I said, because the government has said
NF: So you haven’t taken yours because the Government has said . . ?
YC: The Government’s said that’s not what we’re looking for, because what they’re looking for is proper homes for people and, you know, people should have the dignity of their own homes…
NF: So because David Cameron says not to do it, you’re not doing it?
YC: Yeah, but, look, the Government, you’ve got to provide proper support when they come and what’s the proper support people need? And they need, you know, if they’re a family they’ll need housing of their own.
If they’re a child, they’ll need proper foster support, if you wanna be a fosterer you’ve gotta go through proper training and support through your local council, you can’t just take any family. So look, if that’s what the Government say is what’s needed and that’s what people think is needed . . .
NF: So you won’t be making a room available now?
YC: Then, of course, but at the moment the Government is saying that is not what you need to provide sanctuary. But, you know, the bigger problem at the moment we’re actually not providing any sanctuary at all, we’ve got just 4,000 Syrian refugees coming here a year, there’s 4,000 a day arriving in Greece and you’ve got child refugees who are, you know, alone in Europe and, 10,000 of them…
NF: So can one of them have your room?
YC: Hey, you’ve got to have proper fostering, haven’t you? You’ve got to have proper fosterers and I’ll be honest, I’ve not had proper support and training from local councils to be a proper fosterer and I think that’s not summink you play games with . . . because what we did with the Kindertransport, you remember, the Kindertransport before the Second World War.
Mr S will take that as a no then.
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