Prime minister Dick Schoof and home minister Judith Uitermark have said they will sign the document proposing to give five former COA volunteers a royal honour for their work, following the refusal of asylum minister Marjolein Faber to do so.

The five candidates for a lintje, the royal honour bestowed on volunteers by the king every year on his birthday, worked for refugee settlement agency COA, which was appointed by the justice ministry to carry out the job of looking after asylum seekers as a legal requirement in 1994.

Asylum minister Marjolein Faber of anti-immigration party PVV said the volunteers had been doing work “diametrically opposed to my policy” and refused to authorise the awards.

The minister’s refusal was slated by her own coalition partners and the opposition, who said the Faber had “politicised” the honours unnecessarily.

However, the prime minister’s decision to sign in her stead also provoked criticism. In a briefing to MPs, Schoof did not address what the king’s commissioners called Faber’s attempt at “undermining the system” but merely said the “royal honours were given after careful consideration to people who have served society in an extraordinary way”.

CDA leader Henri Bontenbal accused the prime minister of letting Faber off the hook. “The prime minister has created a bypass, instead of setting a standard,” he said.

D66 leader Rob Jetten said the prime minister’s action was “embarrassing and disappointing, The prime minister is caving in to Faber and Wilders. A minister who gives the finger to volunteers should not be tolerated but corrected,” he said.

MP Jesse Klaver of GroenLinks-PvdA said the cabinet should speak with one voice. “Either Faber supports Schoof’s decision and apologises, or we are dealing with a minister who operates solo and does not speak on behalf of the cabinet. And we can’t have that,” he said.

Coalition partners VVD, NSC and BBB consider the matter closed, they said in a reaction to broadcaster NOS. “It’s right Schoof and Uitermark should sign,” BBB leader Caroline van der Plas said, further politicising the candidature by adding that BBB minister Mona Keijzer and Femke Wiersma would also have been willing to do so.