MP ‘misrepresented’ on evicting Russians

A district MP says he was “misrepresented” after his suggestion Russians should be evicted from the UK saw him branded a “fascist”. North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale, who represents Herne Bay, received criticism after telling TALKRADIO that Russians living in Britain should be returned home in order to “send a very harsh message” to Vladimir Putin. He said: “My view is that we should send Russia a very clear message and rescind all the visas for Russian citizens currently extant in the UK and send everybody home.”

He added that Russian children in UK private schools should be among those returned in a bid to impact oligarchs, adding: “It’s harsh, but they should go.”

His comments sparked anger, with some branding them “racist” and “xenophobic”.

But the MP clarified his stance when he spoke out again on Tuesday, telling BBC Radio Kent he would not wish to see all Russians evicted. “It is only the Russian people that are going to, in the end, bring Putin down,” he said.

“What I’m not saying – I’ve been misrepresented – is that anybody with settled status, anybody who’s for example married to a United Kingdom citizen, or anybody with asylum status, should be returned. That would be absurd.”

Pressed on whether evicting boarding school pupils from the UK would effectively impact Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he added: “The other group of people, [other] than the Russian people, that Putin listens to are the oligarchs who are his paymasters. “Those oligarchs have children in British public schools.

“It may sound harsh and it probably is harsh...but if we want to send that message – if the oligarchs need to squeal, or be made to squeal – then the way that you will do that is by taking away their privileges, and I’m afraid that is where the children come into it.”

On the topic of accepting Ukrainian asylum seekers, Sir Roger added that he believes the UK must “step up to the plate”.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, he called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to consider using former MOD barracks at Manston to help refugees fleeing Ukraine, adding: “In east Kent we have a team of people ready, willing and able to take cars and coaches to the Polish border and to bring them back to

Britain.”

Sir Roger Gale