The leader of Brent Council has said he is prepared to take at least 50 Syrian refugee families to live in the borough.

Cllr Muhammed Butt said he would be happy to increase the numbers if funding is made available from central government.

He said: “It’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we do help the people who are in need.

I’m looking to take in 50 families if necessary, I have no problem with that and if we need to increase it we’ll wait for the announcement from the government about the resources open to us.”

He said it was too early to say how the refugees would be settled in and housed.

He added: “What we need to do first is make a plan, we need to get our partners on board and that the council and the departments are working together so that we can identify the areas of need.

“I‘ve had conversations with officers about starting to take the appropriate measures to support people coming in.

He said there was some time as “people will not be coming in tomorrow.”

The refugee crisis became a European wide issue last week when three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Mediterranean beach. His five-year-old brother Galib and mother Rehan also drowned fleeing their war torn country.

Thousands of refugees walked in to Germany at the weekend to huge applause after having been stopped in Hungary.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home security and Labour leader candidate, said Britain should accept 10,000 refugees with all local authorities and major cities taking at least 10.

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has said the international aid budget could be used to help refugees’ housing and living costs for the first year.

David Cameron is to set to outline plans on how to deal with the crisis this week.