UK politics live: minister suggests visa rules for Ukranians fleeing war to be further eased

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Ben Wallace, defence minister, says second step is looking at ‘refugee flows’ after initial announcement criticised as ‘shameful’

Tom Tugendhat, the Conservartive chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Today programme this morning that he thought the government would end up following the EU policy and allowing Ukrainians fleeing the war to stay for up to three years. Asked if he thought the announcment from the PM last night went far enough, he said it didn’t. He told the programme:

I’ve been speaking to ministers this morning and I can tell you there are many who are hopeful that this will be something that’s reviewed in the coming days.

I suspect that’s likely to be where we end up to be honest. I think there’s a definite opportunity to be generous.

The first step is to make sure that Ukrainians who have family here – either settled or dual nationals – that they can come and join them.

But the second step we will look at [is] about what we do with the refugee flows across the board.

If you’re keen to help and you’re a United Kingdom citizen, come and join our armed forces ...

What I would say is unless you are properly trained, unless you are a, you know, experienced member of [the] armed forces, I think there are better ways for you to contribute to the security of Ukraine.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/EjKtaWB

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