Johnny Mercer
Main Page: Johnny Mercer (Conservative - Plymouth, Moor View)Department Debates - View all Johnny Mercer's debates with the Cabinet Office
(2 years ago)
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The Prime Minister
The right hon. Gentleman is right about the generosity of his country, and he is right to draw attention to his family’s own generosity in this matter. Everyone is pulling together. The number of people who have come forward to offer their home is incredible, but I really do not think he should deprecate what the UK is offering. Some 25,000 people have already got visas. We are processing 1,000 a day. There is no upper limit to the number we can take. This is a country that has already been the most generous in taking people from Afghanistan, with 15,000 under Operation Pitting. We have 104,000 applications from the Hong Kong Chinese. This is a country that is overwhelmingly generous to people coming in fear of their lives. [Interruption.] Yes it is, and so are this Government.
Johnny Mercer (Plymouth, Moor View) (Con)
I do not think anyone involved in partnering operations over the past 10 or 20 years could fail to be humbled by the extraordinary courage and commitment of the Ukrainian people in defending their country, aided and abetted by the lethal aid from this country. They are all appreciative of this Government and this Prime Minister being first out the door to deliver that. Does the Prime Minister agree that while others may now begin to tire, now is the time to double down on the aid we give to Ukraine? Actually, we might end up breaking a pretty poor Russian army and bringing peace to that part of the world, while consigning the likes of Vladimir Putin to the dustbin of history, where he belongs.
The Prime Minister
That is absolutely right, and I thank my hon. Friend very much for his bravery in going to see for himself only the other day. It is right that we should double down on military defensive support in the way that we are. By the way, can anyone imagine a Labour Government, eight of whose Front Benchers voted to get rid of our nuclear deterrent—[Interruption.] Yes, they did, and recently. Can anyone imagine them doing the same? We will go on with that. What we will also do, and I hope we have the support of the Opposition in this, is ensure there is no backsliding on sanctions by any of our friends and partners around the world. In fact, we need now to ratchet up the economic pressure on Vladimir Putin, and it is certainly inconceivable that any sanctions could be taken off simply because there was a ceasefire. That would be absolutely unthinkable, in my view.