{"id":6393,"date":"2026-09-11T17:04:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=6393"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T17:08:11","slug":"supporting-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=6393","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"6393\" class=\"elementor elementor-6393\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-26f8098 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"26f8098\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-62287a5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"62287a5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Questioning Defence Secretary Wes Streeting on British action to support Ukraine in the war, Sir John welcomed the Government\u2019s continued support for Ukraine amid the ongoing threat from Russia to Ukraine, the UK and wider Europe. In Parliament, he called for a public awareness campaign to help people understand the changing security threat and asked what message the Government would send to companies continuing to trade in Russia and potentially undermining sanctions.<\/p><p><strong>Watch his full question here:<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-16e8e2c e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"16e8e2c\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6a5fc76 elementor-widget elementor-widget-video\" data-id=\"6a5fc76\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;youtube_url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/youtu.be\\\/g6Bc5lpAJ30&quot;,&quot;autoplay&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;play_on_mobile&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;mute&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;loop&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;cc_load_policy&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;video_type&quot;:&quot;youtube&quot;,&quot;controls&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"video.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-wrapper elementor-open-inline\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-video\"><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-770e9a8 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"770e9a8\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-534874d elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"534874d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Transcript<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3ab302e e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"3ab302e\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a7dd365 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a7dd365\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>John Whittingdale Conservative, Maldon<\/strong><br \/>I strongly welcome the Secretary of State\u2019s confirmation of our continuing support for Ukraine. He has set out the sustained threat from Russia facing not just Ukraine, but this country and the whole of Europe, yet for too many people, it is still business as usual. First, will he consider a public awareness campaign to raise awareness of the threat, like those in Finland and the Baltic states? Secondly, what message does he have for the companies that continue to trade in Russia and, in doing so, both undermine sanctions and provide funds for Russia\u2019s war machine?<\/p><p><strong>Wes Streeting The Secretary of State for Defence<\/strong><br \/>I will have to think of some parliamentary words, in response to the second part of the right hon. Gentleman\u2019s question. It is an extremely serious issue, and I think the companies concerned, and those with executive decision-making responsibility, ought to think about the risk involved to this country and this continent, and to the values that we are trying to uphold by supporting our friends in Ukraine. Let me reassure him that the national conversation that we need to have is very high on my list of priorities, because we do need to raise awareness\u2014but not alarm\u2014in both a conventional defence and security content and a wider national resilience context. I will report back to the House on plans for a national conversation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sir John welcomes the Government\u2019s continued support for Ukraine and calls for greater public awareness of the threat from Russia and action against companies continuing to trade there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speeches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6393"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6398,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions\/6398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}