Nicola Sturgeon and Yvette Cooper have indicated that they would be prepared to house Syrian refugees as the Scottish government and Labour party intensified pressure on David Cameron to act generously.
Sturgeon told the Murnaghan programme on Sky News that she would be “absolutely happy” to take a refugee from Syria. This raised the prospect that a refugee could be housed in Bute House, the 18th-century Edinburgh townhouse that serves as the official residence of the Scottish first minister.
The musician and aid campaigner Bob Geldof said on Friday he felt “profound shame” about the response to the refugee crisis and said he would put up families in his houses in London and Kent.
On Sunday Pope Francis urged Catholic parishes and other communities across Europe to follow the Vatican’s example in taking in refugee families, and on Saturday Finnish prime minister, Juha Sipilä, offered his home in Kempele, 500km north of Helsinki, to accommodate asylum seekers from early next year.
Sturgeon, asked whether she would be prepared to take a refugee into her house, said: “I’ve been overwhelmed myself with messages from people across Scotland saying they personally would be happy to give a home temporarily, or for a longer period of time, to somebody fleeing Syria. Yes, I would be absolutely happy to do that as part of a bigger, wider, organised approach.”
Pressed further, Sturgeon described the questioning as gimmicky. The first minister, who has established a taskforce to prepare for the possible arrival of refugees in Scotland, said the whole matter could be academic if the prime minister declines to admit large numbers of refugees. The Westminster government is responsible for the control of UK borders.
Cooper also told Sky News she and her husband, Ed Balls, would be prepared to accept a refugee. Speaking before Sturgeon, the shadow home secretary and Labour leadership contender said: “If that’s what it took and that’s what was needed, then of course, I think lots of people would be. But I think what I’ve been calling for is for each city and each county to support 10 refugee families. I think we can do that, I think we’ve got a lot of people across the country coming forward now and saying: ‘Do you know what, we want to help’.”
Thousands of other people have offered to house refugees in their homes as Britons respond to the refugee crisis.
Zoe Fritz, 39, who works as a consultant at Cambridge University hospital, said she set up her own database after seeing shocking images of the wave of refugees risking their lives.
Fritz who lives with her husband, seven-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter in Cambridgeshire, said she had heard from people “who clearly have the space to people who have said: ‘I don’t have much but I have more than a tent on a beach somewhere.’
“I have been in tears. I’ve been very, very heartened. We can all offer to help but we need to turn that into action.”
Fritz said members of her family fled the pogroms against the Jewish people in Ukraine and Belarus a century ago, while others found sanctuary in the UK as part of the Kindertransport programme to evacuate children from Nazi Germany.
“There is a precedent for this action in the UK, and I felt we should be doing more”, she said.
“I had hoped for 1,000 in a week so 2,000 in three days has surpassed my target.”
A fundraising campaign set up by children’s writer Patrick Ness to help with the Syrian refugee crisis passed £500,000 in just three days, with Philip Pullman being among a number of fellow authors and publishers pledging sums up to £10,000.
Ness launched the fundraiser on Thursday, explaining he had to do “something to help this refugee crisis” and matched the first £10,000 in donations for the charity Save the Children.
One Direction performer Harry Styles on Saturday threw his support behind the Save the Children appeal, tweeting: “Take a stand with us & @savechildrenuk: help make #RefugeesWelcome. http://save.tc/RKEq8”.