Richard Howitt, MEP for the East of England, made a visit to St Albans recently to congratulate and support a locally-run initiative aimed at supporting refuges in Calais.

He met with volunteers and the organisers of StAlbansForRefugees at the council-funded garages in the city to talk about the value of such projects and the “immediate, dire, humanitarian need” among Syrian refugees.

He said: “Those camps are informal, unauthorised camps where people have no support whatsoever and the French haven’t actually been terribly helpful.

“They’re tolerating the camps rather than providing the help that is needed. So, everything is needed.”

Richard said that the value of such locally-run initiatives was multi-layered, adding that not only did refugees desperately need this support, but also that it was important that local people can see where their donations were going.

He said: “In the long-term, the impact is on changing public attitudes. We’re all educating each other by doing things like this. It is embedding itself in public opinion.

“If we were a slightly kinder, more open, more generous society then public decision making will be kinder and more generous in itself. Politicians can only reflect the people they represent.”