IT has been full steam ahead for the new autumn Parliamentary session with the first two days of sittings running very late as a result of the active military threats and humanitarian crises emerging in the Middle East. We heard from the Government this week that Britain is fully prepared to play its part in helping to resolve the current situation – we have already sent the Royal Navy to the Mediterranean, saving thousands of lives; met our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of our economy on foreign aid; targeted that aid at unstable and dangerous states like Syria, where we are the biggest donor of aid in Europe, and the second biggest bilateral donor in the world to Syrian refugee camps; and we have given protection to thousands of Syrian refugees.

However, given the gravity of the crisis, and the unfolding tragedies for so many families, as shown in the heart-breaking images of refugees fleeing for their lives, I welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement that Britain should resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees straight from the camps in the Middle East over the next five years. This seems to me to be a sensible and compassionate proposal that will discourage refugees from taking the perilous journey across the Mediterranean but provide help to the most needy. Of course the cost will have to be met from somewhere and it is right that the work will be supported by the foreign aid budget to finance these refugees for the first year and help local councils with housing and other services to make sure people can become self-sufficient. I am proud that many people in Wiltshire have shown their personal generosity and compassion in wanting to support displaced people caught up in this tragedy and I have asked Wiltshire Council to co-ordinate local offers of help to make sure it is put to best use.

For more general offers of help, international aid organisations such as the Red Cross, Unicef and Oxfam can provide advice on what more people can do. Ultimately, however, simply offering succour is not a solution to this crisis. We need a comprehensive solution that deals with the people most responsible for the terrible scenes we see – President Assad in Syria, the butchers of ISIL (and I welcome the work of our armed forces in extending our fight against British terrorism to the jihadists targeting us but operating in the war zones) and the criminal gangs that are running this terrible trade in people.