This week's Letter from Westminster:
I have become very conscious recently of starting many of my letters explaining that it has been written on a Wednesday for publication on the Friday, and therefore events may have changed in the interim. This week is no exception, and as I write Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe is on her way to the airport in Tehran, hopefully to be reunited with her husband and daughter in the UK. It would be beyond inhumane to not let her home now.
This week I have welcomed the announcement of the scheme to enable Ukrainian refugees to come here, hosted by families and able to live here in safety for three years, with the right to work and access public funds. Richard Harrington has been appointed the Minister in charge of the scheme and he brings great wealth of experience having previously set up the Syrian resettlement scheme.
I was fortunate to be able to speak to Richard over last weekend and then again last night, which has given me the opportunity to ask him about many of the more complicated and contentious aspects of the scheme. I do not pretend it is perfect, but the generosity of UK residents offering up rooms in their own homes has been incredible. Richard assured me the first refugees on the scheme would be here by Sunday at the latest, and information about the scheme is widely publicised on www.gov.uk
