A Conservative MP who said he was in Ukraine despite the Foreign Office advising against all travel to the country has been criticised by Downing Street.

Adam Holloway said he arrived to Ukraine on Monday morning and was in a town about 80 miles east of the border with Poland.

But a Number 10 spokesman said they did not know about the MP for Gravesham’s trip before he left and that travel advice applied “to everyone”.

Asked if the MP should return to the UK, the spokesman said: “He should certainly not travel to Ukraine.”

Mr Holloway, a former army officer and a member of the home affairs select committee, told GB News: “The McDonald’s near the border was packed with women and children and a few elderly people.”

He said that when he crossed into Ukraine he saw queues of people 20 miles long as they tried to get out of the country.

Many were huddled together and were being forced to wait for four days in the cold, he said, while there were also queues outside military conscription centres.

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“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,” he added.

“If you look at the moral component of warfare – and as you know I used to be a soldier – that is the decisive thing.

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“We can’t know what’s going to happen over the next few days and months.

“But one thing I can absolutely tell you is that these people here – certainly where I am right now and I think right across Ukraine – it does feel to me as if they’re going to fight.”

Mr Holloway said he ran into “Ukraine’s top concert pianist” who was “fascinating” to talk to as he said so many people were volunteering for the military “they’re only taking people with actual military experience – there just aren’t enough guns”.

It is unclear exactly why the MP has travelled to the country or what he intends to do while there, although he previously worked as an investigative journalist for ITN and ITV.

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