Michelle Donelan MP <michelle.donelan.mp@parliament.uk>
To:nell_whyatt@yahoo.co.uk
Fri 11 Mar at 17:51
Dear Fenella,
Thank you for contacting me about the horrific situation in Ukraine.
The situation on the ground is fluid and fast changing and the scenes on our television screens are truly terrifying. I cannot believe we are witnessing a war in Europe and I cannot imagine how horrific it must be for the people of Ukraine. My heart goes out to all the citizens of Ukraine.
I am sure you will agree that we must help the innocent people of Ukraine, many of whom have been forced to flee from the violence. We immediately opened the extended family route open which allows roughly 200,000 Ukrainians to enter and I have since been pushing for the Home Office to do everything we can in Ukraine’s hour of need. After collecting hundreds of donations from constituents and liaising with a fantastic young man from Melksham to get them sent to Poland and ultimately to Ukrainian refugees, I know the value in each of us pulling together.
I have also spoken with Ministers about the refugee schemes and how we can streamline it to speed it up. As a result, Ukrainian passport holders can simply apply online. They won't need to go to a Visa Application Centre to give their biometrics before they come here and they receive an immediate six months’ leave with full rights to work, study and claim benefits. Biometrics can then be taken here in the UK if they wish to extend their stay to 36 months. I have also spoken to Rt Hon Michael Gove who tells me the sponsorship scheme will be launched in a matter of days (at the time of writing). I will be informing local people as to how they can get involved as soon as I have the details and I will continue to work with our community to do all I can to help offer sanctuary to as many Ukrainian refugees as possible.
We simply cannot let them down and we will continue to do all we can to help them in their time of need. We already have placed the largest package of sanctions in our history. We have supplied the Ukrainian armed forces with body armour, helmets, boots, ear defenders, ration packs, rangefinders and communication equipment and we were one of the first countries to supply Ukraine with anti-tank weapons in supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces with 3,615 NLAWs and we will continue to deliver more. We have introduced the Economic Crime Bill to further flush out Russian oligarchs’ dirty money from the United Kingdom and whilst the UK is not reliant on Russian oil and gas, we are moving away from importing Russian oil and gas throughout this year. We led the way in calling for all Russian banks to be cut off from the SWIFT and we have approved asset freezes on several Russian banks and we have banned Russian airlines and private jets from our airspace.
We will continue to do all we can to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ukrainian people at this time and build on our history of welcoming those fleeing persecution, having welcomed 20,000 Afghan nationals, 97,000 BNOs from Hong Kong and 20,000 Syrian nationals under resettlement schemes.
Thank you once again for taking the time to write to me.
If you would like to stay up to date with what I am doing around the Chippenham Constituency and my views on a number of issues, please subscribe to my e-news by clicking the following link: https://www.michelledonelan.co.uk/ . You can also follow me on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/MichelleDonelanChippenham