MORE than 2,000 Britons have offered to house refugees in their own homes while others yesterday donated food and clothes to ease the growing Mediterranean humanitarian crisis.

Teachers, dinner ladies and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett gave up their Sunday to volunteer while thousands across the country made donations.

Zoe Fritz has set up an online database of people willing to give a bed to those fleeing conflict.

She said that she had been moved by the flood of responses from British people, especially those without much themselves.

“I have been in tears. I’ve been very, very heartened. We can all offer to help but we need to turn that into action,” said the Cambridge hospital consultant.

Dr Fritz said that she too would offer her home.

Hundreds of people have descended on Dalston, east London, to donate clothes, blankets, tents and food to those at the refugee camp in Calais, northern France.

Ms Bennett donated walking boots and described the situation as “an outpouring of compassion, of care, of concern for people in Calais.”