Tory MP Adam Holloway ‘should not have travelled to Ukraine’, says No 10

Conservative appears on GB News from Polish-Ukrainian border

Conservative MP Adam Holloway has been criticised by Downing Street for travelling to Ukraine against his own government’s advice.

The former soldier and MP for Gravesham has appeared on GB News after crossing into war-struck Ukraine from south-east Poland.

Mr Holloway described “extraordinary scenes” of traffic jams full of people trying to flee Ukraine, having also reported on refugees taking shelter inside a McDonald’s on the Polish side of the border.

The 56-year-old, who serves on the foreign affairs select committee, appears to have gone against guidance with the Foreign Office advising against all travel to Ukraine.

Boris Johnson’s spokesman said he was not aware of Mr Holloway’s trip to Ukraine but “our advice applies to everyone”, adding: “He should certainly not travel to Ukraine.”

It comes as the prime minister contradicted foreign secretary Liz Truss and again insisted that the UK government is not actively supporting British volunteers who want to join the fight against Russia in Ukraine.

Mr Holloway told GB News on Monday night that he started his day by going to McDonald’s near the border with Ukraine which was “packed with women and children and a few elderly people”.

The Tory MP continued: “We then went up the road a couple of miles and I crossed over into Ukraine and then really quite extraordinary scenes of thousands of women and children queuing at the border, men separated, foreign men separated, some of them have been living in these corralled areas in the border posts for four days and nights in the cold.”

Mr Holloway then drove east into Ukraine and described seeing “the mother of all traffic jams”, adding: “It went on for about 20 miles, I mean thousands and thousands and thousands of cars.”

He described volunteers in a children’s nursery packing up donated medical supplies into medical kits for soldiers, before he headed to a military conscription site.

Mr Holloway, who has previously worked as an investigative reporter for ITN and ITV, said: “We went round the corner and there was a place where people volunteer to sign up for the military, and we ran into Ukraine’s top concert pianist Igor Grubin.

“It was fascinating talking to him, because so many people are volunteering for the military that they’re only taking people with actual military experience, there just aren’t enough guns.

“I’ve only been on the ground for just over 12 hours but it seems to me that these people here are absolutely determined to fight. If you look at the moral component of warfare, and as you know I used to be a soldier, that is the decisive thing.”

Mr Johnson became the latest cabinet minister to warn Britons away from Ukraine, as he spoke to reporters in Estonia.

A suggested that the UK government was supporting volunteers, but the Prime Minister replied: “You’re not quite right in what you say about supporting volunteers going to fight, the UK is not actively doing such a thing.”

Ms Truss said over the weekend that she would “absolutely” support British nationals who chose to join the fight, with a number of Britons keen to fight against Putin.

A steady stream of people arrived at the Ukrainian embassy in west London on Tuesday to volunteer to fight against Russia’s invasion, and support the refugee effort at Ukraine’s borders.

Roger Conway, from Newcastle, told the PA news agency near the embassy: “Solidarity doesn’t look real if you don’t do anything.” He said he assumed he would receive training from the Ukrainian military.