Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure to suspend Syrian asylum applications in the wake of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, and Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary and a former immigration minister, said the change in the Syrian regime meant all asylum requests should be put on hold until there was clarity on political developments in the country.

It follows similar moves by Germany, Austria and Sweden, which have frozen Syrian asylum applications.

Austria’s interior ministry has been instructed to start preparing the deportation of Syrians already living there.

Mr Philp said: “Given the change in circumstances, the UK should do the same as Austria and Germany and suspend all Syrian asylum processing until the situation becomes clearer. If Syria becomes safe in the future, Syrians here should return.”