It was politically courageous of David Cameron, in the middle of an election campaign where controlling immigration was a key issue, to order the Royal Navy into action alongside the Italians and others to rescue migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe. He overruled both his Foreign and Home Secretaries, Philip Hammond and Theresa May, who had stood by their view that the prospect of such rescue was a “pull factor” encouraging more to risk the perilous crossing. Both ministers have, however, rejected proposals from the European Union to spread the responsibility for settling migrants fairly across the continent, hence also in Britain, instead of them being concentrated in the country of first arrival. The Home Secretary again referred to this as a