In the Chamber of the House of Commons today (22^nd February), Michael Fabricant told the Prime Minister that we must not betray Ukraine like we did Czechoslovakia following the German invasion.

He said “Eighty-five years ago, a predecessor of the Prime Minister talked about ‘a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing’. Doesn’t the concordance between both sides of the House today demonstrate that this is not the case when it comes to Ukraine?”

The Prime Ministered answered: “My Honourable Friend is so right, and I think everybody who knows people in the Ukrainian community in Britain, which is so large, so active, and which makes such a fantastic contribution to our life, feels a huge amount of sympathy for the people of Ukraine today. This is a country that we have familiarity with, that we understand, it is a country that is a democracy, and that shares our values, and that is what is at stake today.”

Speaking afterwards, Michael now says: “Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain betrayed Czechoslovakia with whom we had a defence treaty when in 1938 we did nothing.  Both sides of the House of Commons were united in their determination today to stand up to the belligerence of Russia’s Putin.  I wanted to emphasise that unity in my question with the Conservatives, Labour, and other parties all standing shoulder to shoulder in opposition to Russian aggression.”