THE Lords scuppered attempts to close the only safe route for child refugees to reach Britain in an overwhelming defeat for the government today. 

Peers voted 317 votes to 223 for an amendment that would ensure the right to family reunification continues after the Brexit transition period ends, and give unaccompanied minors in Europe safe passage to Britain. 

The provision is currently covered by EU law in the Dublin III regulations, which Britain will no longer be bound by from next year. 

Lord Dubs, one of the cross-party peers who tabled the amendment, said: “The Home Secretary claimed on Sunday that the Conservative Party has a proud history of providing a safe haven to those in need.

“This claim does not align with what we have seen in the House today, as the government is prepared to callously abandon these most vulnerable of people, leaving them at risk of exploitation of the worst kind.”

Safe Passage chief executive Beth Gardiner-Smith said the vote should be a “wake-up call to the government that providing a safe and legal way for vulnerable refugee children from Europe to be reunited with their families is not only the moral thing to do but the will of a cross-party collaboration across the House and local authorities.”

“Rather than spending time and energy on pie-in-the-sky talk of magic-wave machines or sinister internment camps on distant islands, the government should now support safe and legal routes and back this amendment when it comes back to the House of Commons.”

The government repeated claims in the Lords that it was brokering a deal with the EU to maintain transfers of unaccompanied child asylum-seekers to families living in either Britain or EU countries. 

However, the proposals would not have imposed a legal obligation on either side to carry out transfers. 

Lords Dubs said that a deal proposed was “inadequate” because 95 per cent of child refugees currently helped by human rights groups would not be eligible.

The amendment was added to the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill, which will end free movement with the EU and has already passed through the Commons. 

Today, the Bill also suffered multiple other defeats, including when peers backed a separate amendment proposed by Lord Dubs which would grant EU children in care automatic status in Britain. 

They backed the clause by 323 votes to 227.

The Bill will now go back to the Commons for approval on the added amendments.