Bob Geldof has promised to welcome four refugee families into his homes in London and Kent. The musician said he would open the doors to his homes "immediately" as a personal response to the refugee crisis in Europe.
"If there's new economy then there needs to be a new politics and it's a failure of that new politics that's led to this disgrace, this absolute sickening disgrace," he said. "I'm prepared – I'm lucky, I've a place in Kent and a flat in London – me and (wife) Jeanne would be prepared to take three families immediately in our place in Kent and a family in our flat in London, immediately, and put them up until such time as they can get going and get a purchase on their future."
© Photo: Getty ImagesBob Geldof has said he will welcome four refugee families into his homes
He added to Ireland's RTE Radio: "I can't stand what is happening. I cannot stand what it does to us."
Bob said that harrowing reports and images from the crisis, including those of three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi's body being washed up on a Turkish beach, were a source of shame.
"I look at it with profound shame and a monstrous betrayal of who we are and what we wish to be," Bob explained. "We are in a moment currently that will be discussed and impacted on in 300 years time."
© Photo: Getty ImagesBob lives with his wife Jeanne Marine
Bob has been involved in humanitarian work for almost 40 years, most notably organising the Live Aid concert and Band Aid singles, however he says that a fundraising concert would not be effective in this situation.
"All of this is happening now. We must have the politics and the humanity to deal with it. It makes me sick and a concert won't do it."
Sir Bob will open the doors to his luxury flat in Battersea, London as well as the 12th century home Davington Priory in Faversham, Kent, that he has owned since the 1980s. The historic building is connected to the parish church of St Mary Magdalene and St Lawrence, where the funeral of his daughter Peaches Geldof took place in April 2014.
