Theresa May’s UN message on refugees

The Prime Minister could have used her speech to the UN General Assembly tomorrow in New York to paint a bold picture of where she sees Britain in the future. Instead she looks like she will produce a few small sketches: on anti-slavery, counter-terrorism procedures in airports and on the refugee crisis.

On that last area, a big theme of the gathering of world leaders in New York, Mrs May will stick to her line that Britain is not about to up its numbers for refugee places. Like her predecessor, Mrs May will emphasise that the solutions lay in the regions where the refugee crises are at their worst. When she meets the Turkish President here as one of a series of bi-laterals, she may well hear just how much pressure regional powers think they’re under. President Obama is expected to up the numbers of refugees the US is taking by a third, though he of course is nearing the exit door of frontline politics.

Having delivered her mantra about how post-Brexit Britain is open for business at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, Mrs May is bringing different messages to NY. She’ll reprise those economic arguments for some business leaders she meets in NY tonight, but in her main address to the General Assembly and her intervention in the refugee summit, the PM will stick to UN-related issues.

The PM seems at the moment to be in the dark about what happened in the allied attack on Syrian forces. She told me it was an accident but that investigations were under way. You can see the brief exchange here.