The new Liberal Democrat leader had tears in his eyes as he condemned David Cameron’s response to the migrant crisis yesterday.
Tim Farron urged the UK Government to accept a quote of refugees as part of the EU plan – and claimed the prime minister was making the “minimum effort for the maximum headlines”.
Mr Farron, who visited Calais this summer, said the UK should opt into the scheme agreed this week, warning that many more making the perilous trip would die as winter approached.
In the most emotional part of his speech, he spoke of meeting a 14-year-old boy who had broken both his legs trying to board a lorry, being pushed in a wheelchair by another boy of 11.
“Both had lost their parents, both were alone,” he told a packed hall. “I realised that the UK Government was ignoring their humanity, it was just stuck in media management mode – following not leading.”
All Mr Cameron had offered since the photo of Aylan Kurdi floating face-down in the sea, he claimed, was “the minimum effort for the maximum headlines” and a policy that would not help a single person on the move across Europe.
“It’s pitiful and embarrassing and makes me so angry,” he added. “I want the world to know he (Mr Cameron) does not speak for me, he does not speak for us, he doesn’t speak for Britain.”
Mr Farron called for the UK to accept a quota of migrants under the EU plan, which Mr Cameron has opted out of, but aides would not confirm how many people the country should be prepared to take.
Senior Lib Dems hope taking a lead on the crisis will appeal to liberal-minded people across the country, in a similar way to former leader Charles Kennedy’s stance on opposing the Iraq War.