TWO of Dudley borough’s MPs are among those banned from entering Russia as part of retaliatory action over the UK’s response to the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was taking action against 287 members of the House of Commons in response to sanctions against Russian politicians.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s department announced the move in response to the UK sanctioning 386 members of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, last month, accusing MPs of “whipping up of Russophobic hysteria”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the MPs “should regard it as a badge of honour”, and multiple politicians welcomed inclusion on the list.
Among them was Dudley South MP Mike Wood who sarcastically said he was “clearly gutted to have been sanctioned by Putin”.
He told the News he would have to cancel his many planned Russian holidays and “find some assets in Russia for them to freeze” and he said on Facebook: “Not sure that this will damage Ukraine’s valiant resistance as much as Putin imagines.”
Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris, a Government whip, was also on the list.
He said: “I am proud to have supported the British Government’s actions to stand up to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
“My inclusion on the list will not deter me from continuing to speak out on the atrocities they are committing, or continuing to support our Government and international allies in supporting Ukraine’s right to defend itself and its people.”
Stourbridge MP Suzanne Webb, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace MP, and Dudley North MP Marco Longhi were not included.
Neither was Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid, the Government’s Health Secretary, or South Staffordshire Gavin Williamson who famously said Russia should “go away and shut up” when he was the UK’s Defence Secretary.
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