By Justin Madders

MP for Ellesmere Port

The last few days have seen the very best of the people of Ellesmere Port and Neston with the amazing support people have show in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

What started out with a list of items wanted for donation from Rob Smith of 1st Sutton Scouts ended up with seven large van loads of donations winging their way to Poland for the Ukrainian refugees, via Wrexham. It was an amazing sight to see people queuing down the road in the mud and the pouring rain to drop their donations off at the Scout hut, so many in fact that in the end people had to be turned away because the hut was full. I understand that there have been similar scenes at many other collection points across the country. There then followed a massive logistical effort and again people and businesses came forward without hesitation to offer themselves and their equipment to ensure the donations made their way to the main hub in Wrexham. Thanks to all who helped make this happen, far too many to fit in this column! We also saw inspiring scenes at the Civic Hall on Friday evening where there was a vigil held for the people of Ukraine. Thank you to the Mayor and Council staff for organising and Rev Gordon McGuinness for his words and prayers. The most powerful speaker though was a young woman from Ukraine who spoke about her ordeal she and her family are going through which brought many to tears.

In Parliament the debate continues on what more we can do. At the time of writing the UK has only accepted fifty refugees which feels wholly inadequate given we are fast approaching two million people fleeing Ukraine. There is much pressure on the Home Secretary to override the bureaucracy and allow more people sanctuary. The other main discussion is about the level of sanctions being imposed. Putin must feel the full force of sanctions now. More than a week into the war we have sanctioned only 11 Oligarchs and we are falling behind the EU and US. We cannot let the government's incompetence and delays allow dozens of Putin-linked oligarchs to run away with billions in loot. We must close this sanctions gap and tighten the law so we can move faster and harder against the cronies tied to Putin’s regime. We need to crack the shell companies and lift the veil of secrecy on UK property. We can’t freeze the assets of people if we don't know where those assets are. I am afraid to say as well that the whole of Western Europe needs to find a much faster way of weaning itself off Russian oil and gas supplies because the uncomfortable truth of that is that those purchases are in effect funding the Russian war effort and whilst there is understandable concern about the impact that would have on world energy prices, we are already locked into a spiral of dependence and cost increases which have seen energy prices reach record highs in the last few days.