Burnham-On-Sea’s MP James Heappey has voted in the House of Commons to reject a plan for Britain to accept 3,000 unaccompanied Syrian child refugees who had travelled to Europe.
The vote took place on Monday night, and saw MPs vote by 294 votes to 276 to reject the plan.
Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow, Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger and Burnham’s MP James Heappey all voted against the plan. Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh did not vote.
The amendment to the Government’s Immigration Bill had been proposed by Labour’s Lord Dubs, who himself arrived in Britain as a child refugee fleeing the Holocaust in the 1930s.
Ministers say they will take 3,000 extra vulnerable children, but that they should be drawn from camps near the conflict zone.
A small number of Conservatives rebelled against the Government to vote with Labour to help the children who had already made the journey, however.
Labour peer Lord Dubs will make a new attempt to force the Government’s hand when the Bill returns to the Lords, proposing a revised amendment that removes the reference to 3,000 refugees.
