Financial Assistance to Ukraine Bill

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

2nd reading & Committee negatived & 3rd reading
Wednesday 15th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

My Lords, what an honour it is to follow such a brilliant maiden speech. Clearly, the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, has overcome any fear of public speaking. What she is not afraid of is bringing not just her knowledge and intelligence but her emotion to this Chamber, and we should applaud her for it. It will be an honour for the Chamber to have in its presence a woman who has brought such change to the farming industry, who has been a voice that many of us will have been very familiar with. I feel that I have woken up with Minette Batters over many years, courtesy of Radio 4. Now it is a delight to see her here among us and to listen to her impassioned speech on behalf of an industry to which she has given so much.

We should be aware that the noble Baroness is a co-founder of Ladies in Beef. Even women who are not great meat-eaters may feel that that organisation gives them something to strengthen their resolve in holding their own in what may still, for some, be a bit of a man’s world. I am also intrigued to see that she has chosen to be the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, of Downton. No abbey was mentioned, but perhaps there is a new series in the making—I am sure we will all look forward to it. I also thank the noble Baroness for bringing the attention of the Chamber to the plight of farming in Ukraine, the importance of farming to all of us, and the importance of food security—which, of course, brings me to the Bill.

I welcome the Bill as far as it goes—but how much further it could and should go. The money pledged in it is a fraction of what Ukraine needs. Restricting the funds involved to the income that would be generated by the Russian assets frozen in the EU is simply not enough. Others have already talked about this. Huge Russian assets have been frozen which should be handed to Ukraine as quickly as possible.

The noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, voiced concerns about such a move, but even some of her colleagues in the other place have come to this conclusion and have voiced their views not only there but in a letter to the Times on 6 January. They say that there is at least £25 billion in UK accounts which the Government should hand over, and now. The noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, made an eloquent plea for the UK to be braver, and I commend his stance, although, like him, I would not wish to do anything to jeopardise the Bill directing funds to Ukraine as quickly as possible. The noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Newham, raised this issue too.

There are those who have qualms about the legitimacy of a country not only freezing another’s assets but seizing them. However, that view is based on the concept of sovereign immunity, and I argue that Russia has forgone any right to such immunity. Many will feel that Putin’s outrageous assault on Ukraine is enough to have cost it any immunity. But it is Russia’s behaviour in the UK which surely has eradicated any such rights. Russian operatives have come to the UK with the sole purpose of committing murder. Whether it was the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko or the Salisbury poisonings, they showed no respect for the sovereignty of this country. Why, then, should we respect sovereign immunity in the case of Putin’s Russia?

If Canada and the US can be braver, as the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, explained, can the Minister explain why the UK is still only considering its position on whether it can go any further on such a vital issue? It might be one small step towards redressing the unedifying reputation the UK has gained as a hub for dirty money. The “London laundromat” was a popular destination for Russia’s billions, which was often money obtained through dubious means. The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was praised for his staunch support for Ukraine’s fight, and it is true that he was there at the beginning. But it was also Boris Johnson who, in 2010, as Mayor of London, opened a new department at City Hall devoted entirely to attracting Russian investment to London, and I beg to suggest that not all that investment came from the most respectable of sources. I am not sure that that was top of the list of priorities at the time.

Bill Browder has gained a very big reputation for his bravery in pushing through the Magnitsky Act in many legislatures around the world. He had good reason to do that, as he had fallen victim to the Russian state and his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered in jail in Russia—or at least, he died there, and it was thought not to have been accidental. Because of that, Browder has worked steadfastly to get people alive to exactly what is going on in that country and to take action, rather than just speaking about it.

One of the reasons that he cites, which others have not yet mentioned but which we really should be taking account of, is that, if this war is not won, it will precipitate a refugee crisis that will make the small boats look minuscule in proportion. The refugees will flood not from Ukraine but from all the neighbouring territories that are so fearful of what a powerful Russia might do next. The numbers are put at anything up to 25 million. That is one reason—if only one were required—why urgent action is required to get the money to Ukraine and to get it there quickly, handing over the income from the money that is held in the EU, let alone the UK. However, doing it in three tranches, as this Bill talks about, may be a start, but it is such a small start. Surely, the UK could and should do more.