LEIGH'S Conservative MP James Grundy has dismissed allegations that the Government is not doing enough to help refugees attempting to escape the conflict in Ukraine. 

A furious war of words has erupted between the Government and Labour over Britain's treatment of people fleeing the region following Russia's invasion.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK is "of course" going to take refugees and pledged to help people "fleeing in fear of their lives".
His comments come after Labour said the Government's refusal to relax visa restrictions for those seeking sanctuary in the UK was "immoral" at a time when the country was under fire.
Mr Johnson was asked why the UK is not taking in refugees like some other countries, and he told reporters: "Of course we're going to take refugees. This country's had a historic and proud role in taking refugees from all conflicts.
"And if you think what we did in Afghanistan, for instance, the UK was way out in front.
"I'm aware that there's some fake news on the internet about that and I really want to knock that on the head.
"The UK is way out in front in our willingness to help with refugees.
"We've sent 1,000 troops to the theatre, to be ready to help with the influx and of course we will help people fleeing in fear of their lives."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper reacted to a since-deleted tweet from Conservative MP and minister for safe and legal migration Kevin Foster, who suggested the seasonal worker scheme as a route for Ukrainian people, by tweeting: "My God. People are fleeing war in Europe, the like we haven't seen in generations, in search of swift sanctuary.
"Yet the immigration minister says the answer is they should put in an application to pick Britain's fruit & veg."
Ms Cooper earlier tweeted: "Ukraine is under fire. People are fleeing war. Yet Home Office still applies normal visa restrictions including salaries, language, close relatives.
"This isn't solidarity with Ukraine, it's immoral."

Speaking to the BBC's Politics North West show, Mr Grundy, agreed with the Prime Minister.

He said: "I saw the Prime Minister speaking about this issue late last night and he did give reassurance regarding some 'fake news' that had gone about on Twitter saying that we were just shutting the door - that isn't true. 

"We will be making arrangements which you will hear about in the coming days to deal with refugees from Ukraine - I can't tell you about the detail at the moment but in the next day or two the Prime Minister will be making announcements about how it will work.

"Up until the recent crisis Ukraine was a fully fuctional Western-style democracy and there was no need to create pathways from countries in great difficulties like we have seen with Afghanistan - but circumstances have changed and they have changed very swiftly over the last couple of weeks and we'll be acting to make sure we can can create those safe and legal pathways to Great Britain in due course.

"We have already seen hundreds of thousands of people cross the border into Poland and Slovakia and obviously we are going to have to react as a continent to the consequences of Putin's illegal actions."

When asked if his constituents in Leigh would understand the economic hardship that would hit them as a result of imposing sanctions on Russia, Mr Grundy said he believed the region was fully behind the people of Ukraine. 

He added: "I think it is understood that during any international conflict like this when we put sanctions onto an aggressor like Putin there will obviously be economic consequences for those living here.

"But I have not had any sort of pro-Putin messages through into my inbox. "Everyone is thoroughly behind Ukraine which is not surprising given Leigh historically has had a large Ukrainian population that came over after the Second World War.

"Everyone realises that Putin is a tyrant and they understand that there will be economic consequences - but we must stand up to tyrants otherwise we might be facing problems from dictators ourselves as we did in the Second World War."