Dear Editor,

Britain is the only nation in Europe that still requires Ukrainian refugees fleeing a war zone to apply for visas. This is as shameful as it is inhumane.

We should follow the example of Ireland, and allow Ukrainian nationals to board flights to the UK without paperwork and stay for 90 days without a visa.

We are an international disgrace. Our Home Office is incapable of grasping the problem, granting fewer than 60 visas a day, when 150,000 Ukrainians are fleeing their homeland daily.

Any claims that we are “leading” the response to Ukraine in any way, frankly make us a laughing stock.

I have a simple message for Boris Johnson: lift our visa entry requirements now.

I have an even simpler message for Priti Patel: resign!

The mix of incompetence, hard-heartedness and sheer dishonesty at the Home Office sets a new precedent even by their own appalling standards (Windrush, Afghanistan, etc).

The latest entry scheme is being handled by Michael Gove’s department as the Home Office clearly can’t cope. And the Home Secretary has been blatantly dishonest: on Monday 7th March, Patel announced a visa application centre had been established in Calais. By Wednesday, the Home Office said it was actually in Lille, but would not reveal where. By Thursday it became clear why: there wasn’t one. The ministerial code clearly states that a minister who misleads the public is expected to resign. But we have had other cases where Patel should have resigned and she has stayed on. It debases the great office of state she holds, and further erodes public trust in the government and elected representatives at all levels. What is the view of our local MP’s Maria Miller, Kit Malthouse and Ranil Jayawardena on this?

To what extent has Russian money polluted the Conservative Party?

And to what extent are our local Tory elected representatives, at council and parliamentary level, prepared to go along with it?

Cllr Andrew McCormick

Brighton Hill

Leader Basingstoke and Deane Labour Group