David Cameron: The migration crisis will not be solved by Britain accepting more refugees

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Prime Minister David Cameron has responded to calls for Britain to take more refugees, arguing it will not solve the migration crisis.

Talking to the BBC, Cameron said: "I don't think there is an answer that can be achieved simply by taking more and more refugees."

However, yesterday German Chancellor Angela Merkel told journalists at a press conference in Berlin that the European Union "must push through uniform European asylum policies.

"We observe through practical experience every day that the current legal framework is evidently not being practiced," she added.

Read more: UK migration crisis – How much would it cost the UK to let in all the asylum seekers?

Meanwhile, Stephan Mayer, home affairs spokesperson for Merkel's CDU/CSU alliance, said the UK’s position on refugees could negatively impact on Cameron’s renegotiation attempts.

Speaking to The Times, Mayer said: “If the British government is continuing to hold this position that Great Britain is out of the club in this big task in sharing the [migrant] burden, certainly this could do some harm to the bilateral British-German relationship, and certainly also to David Cameron’s ambitions to be successful in the renegotiation [of Britain’s EU relationship].”

I have always had sympathy and understanding for the British role in the EU and the demands for renegotiation. But we are now in such a huge humanitarian catastrophe, I do not have any sympathy or understanding for one-country-orientated positions.

But when asked about calls for the UK to do more, Cameron told the BBC: "We are taking action right across the board – we're helping the countries from which these people are coming, stabilising them and trying to make sure that there are worthwhile jobs and stronger economies there.

We're obviously taking action at Calais, in terms of the Channel – there's more that we need to do, and we're working together with our European partners as well. These are big challenges, but we'll meet them.

Read more: A record number of migrants are dying in the Mediterranean

Cameron’s retort has also been met with criticism at home. Tim Montgomerie, founder of ConservativeHome and Times columnist, took to twitter to counter Cameron’s claim, urging the UK to do more to help:

https://twitter.com/montie/status/639063487197614081

The Conservatives' old coalition partners also disagreed with Cameron's stance:

Germany anticipates accepting 800,000 refugees this year, almost four times the amount the country took in last year, and larger than the rest of the European Union combined in 2014.