Ed Davey calls for parliament to be recalled over Ukraine

Ed Davey has demanded a recall of parliament so it can debate the possible deployment of British troops in a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

The Politico website quotes him as saying:

"Keir Starmer should bring back Parliament to debate his plans to support Ukraine.

"We have just days for the U.K. to lead in Europe and save Ukraine from a shoddy deal cooked up by Trump and Putin."

Politico says this comes from an interview of theirs with Davey, but I can't find it on the website.

Later in this report we read:

Davey ... offered flexibility about the timing of any vote, but insisted a check by parliament is needed as Starmer presses ahead.

Asked if it was essential that MPs should get a vote before any troops head to Ukraine, Davey said it was !too early to say. We’ve always been happy with retrospective votes. It’s about getting the balance right between Parliament making its voice heard and government doing what it thinks it needs to in order to protect the realm."

Davey said he welcomed Starmer attending Macron’s mini-summit in Paris on Monday as a good start. "But we need to do even more," he said. "For instance, it is time that the UK and Europe look at spending frozen Russian assets on protecting Ukraine."

Ed is often to be heard calling for a recall of parliament - he's as fond of recalls as the England cricket selectors were when I was a boy - but this time he is surely right.

If the US is no longer prepared to underwrite the security of Western Europe, then we are entering a new and frightening world. Our politicians going to have to step up and, in the case of the Conservative front bench, grow up.

I don't believe that Russia has designs on Western Europe, but it is an imperialist power with a near racist belief that anyone who speaks Russian should be its subject. This means that in future the Baltic states, for instance, will be in serious danger of a Russian invasion.

But then I was warning about Russian imperialism 20 years ago.

Later. The Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin has also contributed his thoughts in a Twitter thread.