Westminster this coming week & I have a question at Prime Ministers Questions!

Question 15 at PMQs is the MP for Hexham! Very excited as only the 4th PMQ I have ever managed to secure in 4 years - as it is run on a pure ballot basis. Still working on the question, although there are several options.
Today I am meeting William Hague for an update on Crimea and Ukraine, along with the regular Monday Home Office meeting. We have the Finance Bill going through the Commons enacting the budget on Tuesday when we also have the last day of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill Committee - this has taken up a huge amount of my midweek time this last month and it will be a relief to be free to get back into the Commons.

Wednesday morning there is a debate on the FSA and the Connaught scandal - which I will attend to support Alun Cairns MP, who has secured the short 30 minute debate at 11am. Then after PMQs I will stay for the Opposition Day debate.

Thursday I have a number of constituents coming to Westminster and I will be using the day to try and catch up on your letters, casework and emails. I will also be trying to meet again with Sir David Higgins and the HS2 team.
Update: sadly the Connaught debate has been pulled by the Speaker and will be heard in a few weeks time.

Meeting many of Ukraine's leading politicians tomorrow - is it next on Russia's hit-list?

Tomorrow I hope to meet, talk and listen to many of the Ukrainian MPs who are coming to Westminster. In addition the PM is making a statement at 12.30 in the House on the issue of the Crimea and the Russian agression. I shall be there.

The Ukrainians are rightly concerned that their country as a whole could be next on Putin's list, now that the effective land grab and annexation of the Crimea has taken place. Sanctions are a good start by the West, in response, but clearly this is a fluid process. My other concern is the small region of Transdneister in Moldovia. The concern is that Putin's new doctrine might extend to incorporating the Russian-speaking region of Transdniester.
A fuller assessment of the story here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10721463/Ukraine-the-next-possible-flashpoints.html

Todays Ukraine debate & my question to William Hague - echoes of 1938?

In parliament today we debated Ukraine, amnd sought assurances from the Foreign Secretary that three key things were happening:
- we are doing everything diplomatically to resolve this
- that we are applying more pressure on Russia both to deescalate the situation and discourage it from doing more damage
- and generally seek answers both as to the Russian position, the consequences of their annexation and our options for the weeks ahead. The debate is set out in full below. I asked William Hague the following question:

Guy Opperman (Hexham):

In 1994 Russia and all other key countries signed the Budapest memorandum, which preserved Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty. What is the Foreign Secretary’s assessment of the clear breach by Russia of the 1994 memorandum, and how do we avoid reaching a situation in which we all feel the creeping threat of 1938?

The reason why the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is important is this: it is a political agreement signed in Budapest, Hungary on 5 December 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear-powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. Later, China and France statements of assurance as well. The memorandum included security assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine as well as those of Belarus and Kazakhstan. As a result Ukraine gave up the world's third largest nuclear weapons stockpile between 1994 and 1996. In short it is clear that Russia is in breach of an internation agreement, and its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, and in clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Full debate is here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/commons/todays-commons-debates/read/unknown/258/

This Ukraine "referendum" is a farce even by the standards of Putin's Russia

97% of the Crimea voted to split from Ukraine and go back to Mother Russia. But we are right in the EU to reject the findings. This is somethoing dreamt up by Putin, enforced by Putin and seekeing to solve propblems elsewhere that Putin cannot control. History teaches us that when a country has domestic problems at home, particularly economic, it creates a smokescreen elsewhere. Remember the Argentinian Falklands invasion to smokescreen domestic economic woes in Buenos Aires? Similar comments could be made about many other conflicts not least the First World War.

On the ballot paper, voters were asked whether they would like Crimea to rejoin Russia.

A second question asked whether Ukraine should return to its status under the 1992 constitution, which would give the region much greater autonomy.

Crimea is presently an autonomous republic within Ukraine, and transferred from Russia in 1954
It has:
Ethnic Russians - 58.5%
Ethnic Ukrainians - 24.4%
Crimean Tatars - 12.1%

There was no option for those who wanted the constitutional situation to remain unchanged.
As with all referenda it is the question which is key. Hence why the Scottish question is so fair, and the Crimea question so biased.

Last week I met with Ukrainian MP, Andri Shevchenko, in London. He made it clear that Ukrainians see the Crimea as the first step of future Russian agression. Ethnic Tatars, who make up 12% of the population, mostly boycotted the election. Sanctions are going to follow, and we have a debate in the House of Commons and a statement by William Hague tomorrow.   

William Hague in Northumberland sets out his foreign policy vision

Kiev, Westminster, Paris, Newcastle, Northumberland and Yorkshire was the diary for the Foreign Secretary last week, who kindly drove north from Yorkshire on Thursday night to honour a long standing engagement to meet and talk through some of the decisions he faces. Dozens of locals came to listen to William, and our local North East MEP, Martin Callanan, as they discussed everything from the Ukraine to the Scottish Referendum, with side journeys to discuss the problems of the EU, Syria, North Korea, and much more. The Foreign Secretary talked and took questions for over 2 hours, without a pause or a note.

On Ukraine he was very clear that diplomacy is key to a de-escalation of the situation, and he has clearly been leading the way on this issue - having met with the Russian Foreign Minister last Wednesday. The UK supports the powerful case for the deployment of UN and OSCE monitors to Crimea and other areas of concern in Ukraine, given the grave risk of clashes and escalation on the ground. There is a desire to get the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to use the UN’s authority to bring about direct contact between Russia and Ukraine, and to facilitate the peaceful resolution of this issue.

But it was not just Ukraine the great man spoke of. He made the point that as Foreign Secretary he has visited 80 countries on the UK's behalf over the last 3 3/4 years, and opened a large number of new embassies and consulates. On the Euroland problems the Foreign Secretary was very robust. He repeated his assertion that not only would the UK never join the Euro but that entering the single currency was "like going into a burning with no exits."

In addition, the FS explained the work done with Iran and Iraq as both these countries begin to engage more constructively with the west, and the attempts to assist Lebanon and Jordan with the refugee crisis they face. He also described travelling to South Korea's border with North Korea, and the difficulties of keeping the peace on both sides of the most militarised border in the world. I could tell the tales of his encounters with everyone from Screaming Lord Sutch to Angelina Jolie, and going to the London Olympic Judo finals with President Putin, but the reality is that that 95% of the debate on thursday evening was serious, and rightly so.

We kept coming back to the Ukraine situation and I, for one, am very glad that William Hague is batting for Britain as we try and find a diplomatic solution to what is a very serious problem for all of us in western Europe and in the UK. 

If you want more detail on this conflict and how the UK is trying to resolve this please read William's statement to the House of Commons from last week: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/uks-response-to-the-situation-in-ukraine