MPs should offer up spare houses to Ukrainian refugees, caller insists

1 March 2022, 14:41

By Seán Hickey

Britain's politicians should 'set an example' and sponsor Ukrainian refugees to live in their second and third houses.

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Home Secretary Priti Patel announced to the House on Tuesday an extension of measures allowing Ukrainians fleeing war at home to seek refuge in the United Kingdom.

New measures grant visas to relatives of Ukrainians in the United Kingdom and allows Brits to sponsor specific people in Ukraine to gain asylum in the UK.

"I've come up with a brilliant idea", Barbara in Chorley told Shelagh Fogarty.

"Patel and her little chums who've all got their second houses, maybe they'd like to sponsor some of these poor people?"

Tribune Magazine has conducted research which found 17% of MPs are landlords in the current Parliament. The Independent has also reported in the past that 16 MPs – 14 Conservative and 2 Labour – have rented their second properties whilst claiming around £1 million in expenses on said homes.

The caller told Shelagh that MPs could "set an example.

"Let's get Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, Rees-Mogg and everybody else and let them all have a little go. Let them live in their little second houses."

"What's going on at the moment is shocking" Barbara concluded, suggesting that the UK should lead from the front on the matter.