ACTOR Juliet Stevenson gave two thumbs up from the public gallery today as a bill to reunite refugee families cleared its first Commons test.

Introduced by the SNP's Angus MacNeil, the bill allows child refugees to help bring parents and siblings to the UK and is backed by campaigner Stevenson, Amnesty International, the British Red Cross and other human rights groups.

MacNeil, who represents Na h-Eileanan an Iar, relayed stories of minors now living in areas from Stornoway to Canterbury after harrowing journeys to find safety.

They included one 17-year-old Syrian referred to as Anas, who wrote of his new life on Lewis: "It is an island in the middle of the sea, but at least you can feel the life here. You can be like anyone here. What do you need more when an old man asking you, ‘where are you from?’ And after you answer he starts telling you, ‘you are very welcome in my city'."

Slamming the UK Government for "Orwellian double-speak of the worst kind" over claiming his private member's bill would put more lives in danger, he said similar legislation is in place across Europe and the change will help "about 800 to 1,000" people.

Tory Anna Soubry urged party colleagues to support the bill, which has now passed its second reading, stating: "Everybody forgets what and who a refugee is. This is somebody who is fleeing a place they love – their home. They do not want to leave it, but circumstances, that we cannot even begin to imagine, mean they literally grasp the first things that come to hand and flee their home looking for a place of refuge."

However, fellow Tory Ranil Jayawardena provoked calls of "shame" as he urged MPs to "keep control of our system" and warned of the "potential" for mass sexual assaults by refugee men against women in the UK.

The North East Hampshire MP referred to the terror attack in Berlin in December 2016, when a failed asylum seeker used a truck to kill 12 at a Christmas market and to the Hogmanay sexual assaults against hundreds of women in Cologne one year earlier, adding: "The UK has the potential to face similar issues."

Jayawardena went on: "It is easy to vote for something here without thinking through the consequences, it is easy to get caught up in virtue signalling here without a second thought for the men, women and children we are here to represent, it is easy to cast aside the views of the British people, as some did opposite, who are actually a kind, generous people, happy to provide a beacon of hope to so many around the world but who want to see their money well spent for they naturally want to look after their own families too."

Before the debate, Home Office minister Caroline Nokes urged MPs not to support the Bill, saying the UK is halfway towards its commitment to resettle 20,000 people through the vulnerable person's resettlement scheme and has a commitment to resettle up to 3,000 vulnerable children through another programme.

Shadow Home Office minister Afzal Khan offered Labour's support for the Bill, which will undergo further scrutiny at a later stage but has several parliamentary hurdles to clear before becoming law.

MacNeil said: "The Refugee Family Reunion Bill is not a party political issue, but a humanitarian one.

"More than half of the world’s refugees are children.

“I now look forward to continuing to work with MPs and organisations to ensure that refugee families are no longer kept apart, and that this Bill becomes law."