“I am ashamed to be British”, said Austen Ivereigh, Catholic commentator, founder of the Catholic Voices project for the promotion of the Church’s representation in the UK media, and author of a biography of Pope Benedict XVI. According to him, the decision yesterday by the House of Commons to refuse entry to 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees from Syria, currently in Calais, breaks with a long tradition in a country that has always sheltered those who flee persecution. The decision was taken amid fears that the Conservative party might lose votes to the anti-European party UKIP in the Brexit referendum on 23 June. Mr Ivereigh adds his voice to those of Catholic Primate Vincent Nichols and of Anglican Primate Justin Welby, who in the past few months have repeatedly decried the closure of the UK’s borders. This time, however, by voting 294 to 276 to reject the amendment to the Immigration Bill proposed by human rights organisations, thereby refusing entry to vulnerable minors, the MPs in Westminster “have reached rock bottom”. “The idea that Great Britain, the fifth wealthiest country in the world, cannot offer a home to 3,000 abandoned children makes me ashamed to be British”, said Mr Ivereigh. “In the future, we will look back at this time as one of our darkest hours”.