Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption David Cameron: "It is right we should do much more" 
 
 The UK will accept up to 20,000 refugees from Syria over the next five years, David Cameron has told MPs. 
 
 The prime minister said the UK had a "moral responsibility" to those living in camps bordering Syria while doing all it can to end the conflict there. 
 
 Vulnerable children and orphans would be prioritised in what would be a "national effort", Mr Cameron said. 
 
 But Labour said the 20,000 figure was inadequate and secured an emergency Commons debate on Tuesday. 
 
 Commons Speaker John Bercow agreed to a Labour request for a three-hour debate about the wider crisis in Europe, with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper urging the prime minister to reconsider his response. 
 
 Ms Cooper insisted Britain must also help refugees who have made it to Europe as well as Mr Cameron's current proposal to take more from camps surrounding Syria. 
 
 In his two hour statement to Parliament, Mr Cameron also revealed that two British-born nationals believed to planning terrorist attacks on the UK were killed in an RAF drone strike in Syria last month. 
 
 Earlier on Monday, France announced that it would take in 24,000 refugees over the next two years. 
 
 'Safe route' 
 
 Mr Cameron told MPs that the suffering of the Syrian people and others trying to make it to Europe in recent weeks was "heartbreaking" and that the UK was stepping up its effort to help those displaced by the conflict. 
 
 He told MPs that the existing Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme, in place since early 2014, would be expanded, with an additional 20,000 people currently living in camps in Syria, Turkey and Jordan being resettled in the UK by 2020. 
 
 Syrian refugees in the UK 20,000 more refugees will be resettled in the UK by 2020 4,980 Syrian asylum seekers have been allowed to stay since 2011 25,771 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to end June 2015 
 
 2,204 were from Syria 
 
 87% of Syrian requests for asylum were granted 
 
 145 Syrian asylum seekers have been removed from the UK since 2011 AP 
 
 People brought to Britain under VPR have been granted Humanitarian Protection, a status normally used for people who "don't qualify for asylum" but would be at "real risk of suffering serious harm" in their home country. 
 
 They can stay for five years, have the right to work and access public funds. After five years they can apply to settle in the UK. 
 
 Mr Cameron told MPs many of those to be given sanctuary would be children, describing it as the "modern equivalent of the Kinder transport" during World War Two. 
 
 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees would be responsible for identifying those most in need, with all those considered for resettlement to be subject to security checks. 
 
 'Extra compassion' 
 
 The government, he said, would work with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and councils in England to ensure the maximum capacity was available and the commitment could be "properly delivered on the ground". 
 
 "We will continue to show the world that this country is a country of extra compassion, always standing up for our values and helping those in need," Mr Cameron said. 
 
 Analysis by BBC Political Correspondent Eleanor Garnier 
 
 It sounds like a big number but the 20,000 will be spread over five years. Compare that to France, which is taking 24,000 refugees over the next two years or Germany, where about 18,000 people arrived over the weekend alone. 
 
 The Green Party's Caroline Lucas said Mr Cameron's commitment "falls pitifully short of what's needed" and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called it a "very slim response". 
 
 Given the public reaction over the past few days, I suspect the criticism won't stop there. 
 
 Coverage of refugee numbers is likely to be crowded out by Mr Cameron's other big announcement - that two British fighters with so-called Islamic State were killed by an RAF drone in Syria in an act of "self-defence." 
 
 With MPs returning today from their summer recess, this was the first chance the prime minister had to update Parliament on military action in Syria. 
 
 But Downing Street will have been well aware that it could shift media focus from the refugee and migrant crisis. 
 
 The scheme will be paid for in the first year from the overseas aid budget. After that, Mr Cameron said the government would have consider, in co-operation with local councils, how it would be financed. 
 
 'Proud tradition' 
 
 The PM defended his response to the migrant crisis - which has been criticised in recent days - insisting the UK was giving £1bn in humanitarian aid to Syria and that by accepting refugees directly from camps it was discouraging people from taking the "potentially lethal" crossing across the Mediterranean. 
 
 Tory MPs welcomed the move and although Labour leader Harriet Harman said the government was doing the "right thing" she said there was an urgent need for action now and questioned whether there was scope to accept more than 4,000 this year. 
 
 "Is being British to be narrow, inward looking, fearful of the outside world, or is it about being strong and confident and proud to reach out to those seeking refuge on our shores? It must be the latter." 
 
 She also called on the government to reconsider its refusal to accept any refugees currently in southern and central Europe. 
 
 The SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson said it was "appalling" that only 216 refugees had been given sanctuary so far under the VPR scheme while veteran Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman said the UK's efforts stood in stark contrast to that of Germany, which had effectively accepted 10,000 refugees in a single day. 
 
 Save The Children urged the government to come to the aid of the 3,000 or so unaccompanied children who had travelled to Europe, saying it would continue "a proud British tradition of giving lone children a second chance in Britain". 
 
 But UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Syrian refugees should be considered as part of the UK's annual asylum process and he would be seeking assurances that no-one given refuge posed any threat to UK security. ||||| Twenty thousand Syrian refugees – many of them children – will be given new homes in Britain over the next five years, David Cameron announced. 
 
 The Prime Minister said sanctuary would be given to refugees who are currently in camps neighbouring Syria. Four thousand refugeees every year will be allowed into the UK over the next five years. 
 
 Orphans of the conflict would be given priority in a programme which Mr Cameron likened to the “modern equivalent of the Kindertransport” scheme, when Britain gave sanctuary to thousands of Jewish children during the Second World War. 
 
 However Mr Cameron’s announcement, which was intended to put his Government back on the front foot after a sluggish response to the refugee crisis, was overshadowed by his announcement of a British drone strike against a British Islamic State Jihadist in Syria. 
 
 Mr Cameron told MPs in the House of Commons that he wanted Britons to give the refugees a “friendly and joyous welcome”. 
 
 He said that “given the scale of the crisis and the suffering of the Syrian people it is right that we should do much more”. 
 
 He said: “We are proposing that Britain should resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the rest of this parliament. 
 
 “In doing so we will continue to show the world that this is a country of extraordinary compassion, always standing up for our values and helping those in need. 
 
 “Britain will play its part alongside our other European partners but because we are not part of the EU’s borderless Schengen agreement or its relocation initiative, Britain is able to decide its own approach.” 
 
 Mr Cameron added that Britain’s financial contribution also needs to be recognised as it outranked France, Germany and other countries. 
 
 Mr Cameron said he had been on a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel who had “welcomed the statement we are making today”. 
 
 But Labour MPs criticised Mr Cameron for not agreeing to take more refugees. 
 
 Photo: Eddie Mulholland/The Telegraph 
 
 Sir Gerald Kaufman, the Father of the House of Commons, accused the Government of doing less than Neville Chamberlain’s administration in 1939 to help refugees fleeing conflict. 
 
 He noted his parents looked after a Jewish girl who arrived in Leeds on the “Kinder transport”, adding: “I think it is sad that we are doing, with the Government, less than Neville Chamberlain did. 
 
 “You say you're going to take in 20,000 refugees over five years. The Germans took in 10,000 on one day. What kind of comparison is that? 
 
 “I recognise the financial problems, I recognise the assimilation problems, but if we don't do it now we will live to regret it for the rest of our lives.” 
 
 Jeremy Corbyn, the hard left MP who is favourite to be crowned Labour leader this week, said Britain should take in refugees from other countries who are currently living in camps in Calais and across Europe, as well as Syrians in the Middle East. 
 
 He said: “They are human beings too who need some help and support.” 
 
 Photo: AP/Santi Palacios 
 
 In the House of Lords, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that 20,000 was only a "very slim response" which "is going to have to rise over the next five years". 
 
 Tory MPs praised Mr Cameron’s response. Sir Gerald Howarth, a former Conservative former minister, said his constituency has no room to house any Syrian refugees as he described the growing clamour for Britain to help those fleeing conflict as “hysterical”. 
 
 He insisted that his Aldershot constituency has no spare accommodation as the council has “no assets” and the private rented market is “completely saturated”. 
 
 The news came as the United Nations warned that the flood of refugees into Europe from the Middle East and Africa has only just begun as states disintegrate in a maelstrom of religious war. 
 
 Peter Sutherland, the UN's special envoy for migrants and refugees, said: "We cannot comfort ourselves that this is a temporary phenomenon." ||||| David Cameron to face questions over attack that killed Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin while third UK jihadi died in US strike 
 
 The British government authorised an unprecedented airstrike in Syria that killed two Britons fighting with Islamic State, David Cameron has announced. 
 
 The target of the RAF drone attack was Reyaad Khan, a 21-year-old from Cardiff who had featured in a prominent Isis recruiting video last year. Two other Isis fighters were killed in the attack on the Syrian city of Raqqa on 21 August. One of them, Ruhul Amin, 26, was also British. 
 
 UK government authorised targeted airstrike in Syria in August - Politics live Read more 
 
 Cameron justified the killing in the sovereign territory of another country on the basis that Khan represented a specific threat to UK security, and that he had exercised the country’s “inherent right to self-protection”. He said the strike was not part of the coalition’s general fight against Isis in Syria. 
 
 “It was necessary and proportionate for the individual self-defence of the UK,” Cameron said on Monday. 
 
 A third Briton, Junaid Hussain, 21, was killed by a separate US airstrike, he confirmed. 
 
 The prime minister faced questions over the strikes on Monday night when Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative chairman of the treasury select committee who has led a campaign against rendition flights, called for an investigation by parliament’s intelligence and security committee. “The ISC exists to scrutinise decisions like this,” Tyrie said. “As soon as they are created [the process to appoint members to the committee in the new parliament] they should do so.” 
 
 The committee would be allowed to see the intelligence that prompted Cameron to become the first UK prime minister to authorise an attack by an unmanned drone outside a formal conflict. Cameron could face questions about whether the strikes amounted to killings of UK citizens outside the UK jurisdiction in an echo of the “death on the rock” shooting of IRA terrorists in Gibraltar by the SAS in 1988. 
 
 Amnesty International condemned the killing. Its UK director, Kate Allen, said: “It’s extremely alarming that the UK has apparently been conducting summary executions from the air. In following the United States down a lawless road of remote-controlled summary killings from the sky, the RAF has crossed a line.” 
 
 It is understood that the strikes against Khan and Hussain were part of a joint operation by the UK and the US. Khan was killed by an RAF Reaper drone on Friday 21 August while Hussain was killed by the US the following Monday. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest British Isis fighters Junaid Hussain, left, and Reyaad Khan, right, were killed in US and British airstrikes. 
 
 The prime minister indicated that the UK and the US strikes followed intelligence that Khan and Hussain were plotting to attack “high-profile public commemorations” in the UK. 
 
 It is understood they were the Armed Forces Day event to mark the death of Lee Rigby, which was held in Woolwich on 27 June, and the VE Day commemorations presided over by the Queen in London in May. 
 
 The prime minister told MPs: “Both Junaid Hussain and Reyaad Khan were British nationals based in Syria who were involved in actively recruiting Isil [Isis] sympathisers and seeking to orchestrate specific and barbaric attacks against the west, including directing a number of planned terrorist attacks right here in Britain, such as plots to attack high-profile public commemorations, including those taking place this summer. We should be under no illusion. Their intention was the murder of British citizens.” 
 
 The Sun reported on 27 June that Hussain had allegedly admitted instructing undercover reporters how to attack soldiers in Woolwich on Armed Forces Day. 
 
 
 
 Was it lawful for UK forces to kill British Isis fighters in Syria? | Joshua Rozenberg Read more 
 
 The prime minister said the British strike against Khan was “entirely lawful” and that the attorney general had been consulted. He warned that the threat to Britain from Islamist extremist violence was “more acute today than ever before”. 
 
 Cameron told MPs: “We took this action because there was no alternative. In this area, there is no government we can work with. We have no military on the ground to detain those preparing plots. 
 
 “And there was nothing to suggest that Reyaad Khan would ever leave Syria or desist from his desire to murder us at home. So we had no way of preventing his planned attacks on our country without taking direct action.” 
 
 The prime minister indicated the attack had been specifically authorised by the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, and that its legal basis had been approved by the attorney general. 
 
 Cameron said in the statement: “The strike was conducted according to specific military rules of engagement which always comply with international law and the principles of proportionality and military necessity. The military assessed the target location and chose the optimum time to minimise the risk of civilian casualties. This was a sensitive operation to prevent a very real threat to our country.” 
 
 Cameron told MPs that Britain’s permanent representative to the United Nations was writing to the president of the security council about the action, as required by the UN charter. 
 
 Labour’s interim leader, Harriet Harman, said no one should be in any doubt about the scale of the threat posed by Isis. But she called for the attack to be reviewed by Britain’s independent reviewer of counter-terror laws and by the intelligence and security committee. 
 
 Drone killing of British citizens in Syria marks major departure for UK Read more 
 
 Police and security services have also stopped at least six terrorist attacks against Britain in the last 12 months, Cameron told MPs. 
 
 The prime minister also said the the growing threat of Isis showed the need to expand the UK’s involvement in airstrikes against the terror group from Iraq to Syria – something that is rejected by Jeremy Corbyn, the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest. 
 
 Downing Street dismissed suggestions that it had deliberately engineered British involvement in the airstrikes rather than leaving them to the US, which is involved in regular strikes over Syria. The prime minister’s spokeswoman said he had sanctioned the operation after receiving specific intelligence that UK citizens were planning terror attacks on UK soil. 
 
 Lord McDonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said the killing of Khan was legal and justified. The Liberal Democrat peer was in charge of the prosecution service in England and Wales from 2003-2008 and oversaw numerous charges and convictions of terrorists in the courts. 
 
 McDonald said: “I think it is lawful and proportionate to target a British citizen who has travelled abroad to join an armed group which is targeting Britain and British citizens and is on record himself as having that purpose. I think it is appropriate to invoke the principle of self-defence and to target him.”
– Austria and Germany have already accepted thousands of migrants fleeing the Middle East—now it's Britain's turn. British Prime Minister David Cameron said today that the UK will house up to 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, the BBC reports. Britain has a "moral responsibility" to help, Cameron says, and will focus on accepting needy children and orphans in this "national effort" that he liked to the "Kinder transport" of World War II. Refugees will be allowed to live in the UK for five years, work there, and benefit from the public trough, the PM explained; then each one can apply to settle in Britain. The Labour party criticized him for not taking enough refugees, and indeed, the Telegraph reports that the UK will only be accepting 4,000 per year. Compare that to France, which agreed to take in 24,000 over the next two years, while Munich alone registered about 7,000 by yesterday and Germany figures it can embrace some 800,000. Another tidbit in Cameron's press conference today: Britain assassinated two of its citizens last month by RAF drone strike in Syria; both were said to be members of the Islamic state, the Guardian reports. "It was necessary and proportionate for the individual self-defence of the UK," says Cameron. The British government plans to investigate the strike, which Amnesty International called "extremely alarming."