THE Government may back down on its stance on taking Syrian child refugees from camps in Europe, the chancellor has hinted. 

Ministers have been warned they face a damaging Commons defeat unless they back down over the admission of children who have managed to make it to Europe without their parents or families.

Rebel Conservative MPs are due to meet Immigration Minister James Brokenshire to discuss demands that the UK takes 3,000 unaccompanied children ahead of a vote in the House next week.

It comes just a week after it was reported that a majority of MPs voted nopt to accept 3,000 child refugees.

They included Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow, Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger and Wells MP James Heappey.

Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh abstained from the vote.  

Speaking ahead of the meeting, George Osborne told BBC News: "Britain has always been a home to the vulnerable.

"We have always done what we need to do to help people who are fleeing persecution.

"That's why we are taking people from the refugee camps as a result of this terrible Syrian civil war.

"We are working with others, with charities, with other political parties, talking to people about what we can do to help the unaccompanied children as well, where we are already providing financial support.

"So we are in those discussions and those discussions will go on. You will hear what we have got to say in due course."

David Cameron has previously insisted the children who have succeeded in reaching Europe are not in immediate danger as they are no longer in a conflict zone and they should be looked after where they are.

Ministers argue that taking in unaccompanied minors from camps such as the Jungle in Calais would simply encourage parents in Syria to send their children on the dangerous journey to Europe.

However, the Government faces intense pressure from critics who warn the children are being abused and exploited by people traffickers.

Tory backbencher Heidi Allen - who abstained when the issue was last debated by MPs - said that ministers faced defeat at the hands of Conservative rebels unless they gave ground.

"It is not relatively safe to be pulled into trafficking and prostitution.

"Talk to the doctors there - Medecins Sans Frontieres - they are literally stitching up children on a daily basis and sending them back to the camps," she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"That is not the safety that you and I think of when we think of Europe. These children are not safe at all. They need our help."

Asked if she was ready to vote against the Government if it did not offer any concessions, she said: "I am this time and many are."

She did indicate that a possible compromise could be the speeding up of a scheme for the admission of unaccompanied child refugees with family in the UK, saying it would be a "great start".

"If we can establish where those children are and who they are then the number - the magical number of 3,000 - becomes academic.

"It is about finding those with the right to be here," she said.

Pressure on ministers intensified with the intervention of a former Jewish child refugee from the Nazis, urging them to offer sanctuary to those in need.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Sir Erich Reich, chairman of Kindertransport-Association of Jewish Refugees, appealed to him to "demonstrate compassion".

"I strongly urge you and your colleagues to reconsider how we can intervene to help some of the most vulnerable victims of an internecine conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of people and displaced millions," he wrote.

"The echoes of the past haunt many of my fellow Kinder and I whose fate similarly rested with members of the British parliament.

"I feel it is incumbent on us to once again demonstrate our compassion and human kindness to provide sanctuary to those in need."

Born in Vienna in 1935, Sir Erich was one of 10,000 children sent from Nazi-occupied Europe to safety in the UK before the start of the Second World War.

He arrived in the UK in August 1939 and never saw his parents again.