In response, new shadow home secretary Andy Burnham asked for “clarity” on the total number of Syrian refugees expected to arrive, as well as the number due to come to Britain before Christmas.

Mrs May told MPs: “In welcoming vulnerable refugees to the United Kingdom it is imperative that we have in place the support and help that they need and deserve”.

May refused to say how many refugees would arrive in the first wave but media reports suggest that the government is aiming to take about 400 people per month.

An official United Kingdom government web page and a British Red Cross helpline have been set up to provide advice for any members of the public who want to help.

The Government has so far only said up to 20,000 in total will be accepted over the next five years.

The resettlement summit is to be hosted by the new minister for Syrian refugees, Richard Harrington, who is already overseeing a “gold command” team inside the Home Office bringing together people from local government, overseas aid, foreign office, the UNHCR and other refugee aid organisations.

In a Commons statement, Mrs May warned that the refugee scheme needed “careful and meticulous planning” to make sure it was managed properly.

Ms Cooper is leading a taskforce for Labour on refugees and Mr Burnham said she had showed “great leadership” on the issue, while Ms May also wished her the best for her time on the backbenches.

He said: ‘The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary are right in saying that the United Kingdom has set the lead on aid spending and we must urge other European countries to match it’.

Mr Burnham spoke about the situation in Calais, adding: “The big question of course on the Government’s response to date is whether it is in any way commensurate with the scale of this crisis”.

“Given the awful scenes at the Hungarian border, given the pictures of children sleeping on the streets, is it the Government’s decision not to take any refugees from Europe sustainable from a moral and practical point of view?” “We need to be ready to do more if the necessity demands”, he said.

Earlier this week, Mr Cameron visited refugee camps in both Jordan and Syria from where he ordered Britons to offer a “warm welcome” to those people the United Kingdom would be taking from such camps.

May told MPs that the first Syrian refugees being resettled in Britain direct from the region’s camps would arrive in the next few days.

He added that refugees would not automatically be given full asylum, but instead a humanitarian status which would allow them to apply for asylum after five years.

Conservative MP Sir Bill Cash criticised Germany’s response to the crisis, and described the potential migration flows as a “tsunami”.

The SNP’s Joanna Cherry QC said her party believes “the UK Government is not doing enough in the face of the extraordinary humanitarian crisis”.

The Prime Minister has ignored European Union calls to join a quota scheme to relocate those 160,000 refugees already in Europe.