DAVID Cameron has hit back at criticism from a group of bishops about the UK Government’s response to the refugee crisis as he revealed to MPs that he wanted 1000 Syrians to arrive in Britain by Christmas.

According to No 10, the Prime Minister wants to "step up the pace" of the resettlement programme and, given just over 260 had arrived so far, the aim of taking in 1000 during then next two months was a “significant increase” towards the overall aim of up to 20,000 refugees over five years, said a spokeswoman.

However, she declined to give any details of where the new refugees would be accommodated or when and with what frequency they would arrive.

During Mr Cameron’s statement on last week’s European Council meeting, Jeremy Corbyn, who praised the UK's aid effort in response to the Syrian crisis, asked the PM: "Will you give a substantive reply to the letter from 84 bishops calling on you to accept 50,000 refugees?

"If Britain played a more positive role on this front, it may create the goodwill in Europe to make headway in your other forthcoming negotiations."

Mr Cameron replied by stressing how the UK was not part of the open-borders Schengen area, so not compelled to take people already in Europe.

“So we're taking people out of the refugee camps, which doesn't encourage people to make this journey. I have to say to you, in the discussions we have in Europe, there's a lot of respect for the British position."

Turning to the Church of England criticism, the PM told MPs: "On the bishops, no-one has more respect for the bishops than me, but on this occasion, yes, they're wrong and I'll say so very frankly.”

He stressed the right thing to do was to take 20,000 refugees from the camps, noting that if Britain became part of the mechanism for distributing people around the EU, then it would be encouraging people to make that perilous journey.

"I would now like to see the bishops make a very clear statement, as(Mr Corbyn) just did, which is Britain has fulfilled our moral obligations by making a promise to the poorest countries and poorest people in the world of spending 0.7 per cent of our gross national income on aid, and how many other of the big countries that made that promise have kept that promise?

"So let's hear an in-depth intervention from the bishops on that issue," declared Mr Cameron.

Angus Robertson for the SNP reiterated his call for Britain to take in more refugees, who were already in Europe, noting how “our EU neighbours are doing a great deal for the refugees who have made it" to the continent.

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron appeared to suggest countries like Hungary, which have been widely criticised for building fences to keep refugees and migrants out, had the right to protect their borders.

Answering a question from Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, the PM said: "As for Europe's external borders, they are not my responsibility and I'll leave Viktor Orban to defend himself.

"But just so he knows the point that the Hungarian prime minister makes, and others make, is that Europe has an external border and needs to prove it has an external border in order to make sure people don't believe that it is a risk-free easy journey to make to go to the European Union.

"But,” he added, “that's a matter for them."