Cardinal Vincent Nichols tells ITV News: Britain must be more 'generous' to desperate migrants

Britain's reaction to the migrant crisis has to be more "generous", Cardinal Vincent Nichols has told ITV News.

Speaking after images of a dead Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach emerged, Cardinal Nichols said the British public had told him it was "a disgrace that we were letting people die and seeing bodies on the beaches when together Europe is such a wealthy place".

"If we take 10,000, it's a fraction of the problem," he told Chris Ship.

He said: "People are beginning to see the human face of this suffering, so it's no longer an abstract problem of people who are on the scrounge, it's not.

"It's people who are desperate for the sake of their families, their elderly, their youngsters, their children, and the more we see that the more the opportunity for a political response that's a bit more generous is growing."

"What is screaming out is the human tragedy of this problem."

Asked about the Prime Minister's previous use of the term "swarm" to describe migrants, he said: "We must keep at front of our minds these are people, human beings, families like our own."

Earlier, Mr Cameron insisted Europe's migrant crisis will not be solved by Britain taking in more migrants.

He said the problem must be tackled at source by ensuring peace and stability in the Middle East, where thousands of migrants have fled war and conflict.