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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Voice of the Mirror

'Show some compassion, Rishi Sunak, and let stricken Ukrainian family be reunited'

We cannot imagine what it is like to be a young child in Ukraine today. So to give us a flavour Dmytro Krasnozhony has shared his letter to the PM.

The 11-year-old tells of hours spent in a bomb shelter instead of at school and homework done by candlelight during power blackouts.

It upsets him his mother no longer smiles, and his plea to Rishi Sunak is for them to be reunited with the father in Britain they have not seen for 18 months.

But along with 9,400 other Ukrainian refugees in an administrative logjam, Dmytro and his mum have come up against the dead hand of the Home Office.

This is not one of the many immigration issues with which Mr Sunak is incapable of sorting. Today we report how disabled asylum seekers are being housed in unsuitable properties.

But Ukrainians who come here will go home when the war is over. Their dearest wish is to rebuild their country.

The British people have opened their hearts and their homes to families fleeing Russian brutality, and Dymytro and his mother also have a home here ready and waiting.

A PM with an ounce of compassion would ensure they get to it without further delay.

Pressure grows on Rishi Sunak as some 9,400 Ukrainian refugees are in an administrative logjam (AP)

Cure the NHS

Pneumonia patient Rebecca Bridgman also wanted to send a message to Mr Sunak. She chose video footage of her five night hell in A&E to do it.

Her condition meant she should have been whisked onto a ward and into a bed but instead Rebecca spent the best part of a week in an emergency cubicle.

She says the Prime Minister should have acted months ago to sort out the chaos in the NHS.

Make that years, Rebecca.

The NHS has been on a downhill spiral of underfunding, pressure from an ageing population and staff shortages for so long only root and branch reform will save it.

But in the short term Mr Sunak must deal with the legitimate gripes of those who work in the NHS over pay and conditions.

That means sitting down, not just with nurses, but all the health unions.

And once that is done he can move onto the longer term changes our ailing health service so desperately needs.

Therese Coffey suggested Brits turn to turnips amid a shortage of vegetables in supermarkets (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Takes the pea

We bet you can’t wait to swap your tomato sauce for turnip ketchup.

Or tuck into new look BLT sandwiches – bacon, lettuce and turnip.

But Britain’s top turnip farmer Richard Parry tells us the vegetable may not be as easy to come by as Defra boss Therese Coffey suggests to those struggling to feed themselves.

His crop of 30 million turnips a year has now fallen by two-thirds because of soaring energy prices and labour shortages.

You get it wrong so often, Ms Coffey, it’s no longer a turnip for the books.

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