Ukraine

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am expecting to run this statement until around 2 o’clock, so short questions and pithy answers would certainly be helpful.

[Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement today and the actions of him and his Government over recent weeks. I pay particular tribute to the Defence Secretary, whose unfailing efforts in preparing not just the people of Ukraine but our allies in NATO for this aggression has been exemplary.

As we are talking about sanctions today, and rightly so, will my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister also commit to a foreign agents registration Act? We have seen the insidious work of the United Front for China, and indeed of different outfits for Russia, to undermine our democracy and threaten our way of life. Will he please bring in that Act, and while he is doing it will he finance much more the Russian service of the BBC so the Russian people can hear the truth, not the lies being spread by their own Government?

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

This is the final question.

[Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

Three weeks ago, the Prime Minister said that sanctions would

“come down like a steel trap in the event of the first Russian toecap crossing into more sovereign Ukrainian territory.”

I wonder whether he will answer me and the First Minister of Scotland, who believe that it appears that they will not. If this is the first tranche, there need to be further tranches with much tougher action soon.