Ministers have lost the political argument on child refugees

Why is the government preparing for a U-turn on accepting more unaccompanied child refugees? George Osborne was speaking this morning on television about the ‘discussions’ that the government is having on this matter, which underlined that ministers are indeed going to announce concessions before MPs force them into accepting the Lord Dubs amendment to the Immigration Bill. He said:

‘Britain has always been a home to the vulnerable and we’ve always done what we need to do to help people who are fleeing persecution. That’s why we are taking people from the refugee camps as a result of this terrible Syrian civil war and we’re working with others, with charities, with other political parties, talking to people about what we can do to help the unaccompanied children as well, where we’re already providing financial support. So we are in those discussions and those discussions will go on and you will hear what we’ve got to say in due course.’