DISCUSSIONS on a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine “seem to be proceeding well”, according to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

She told GB News: “I do think it’s positive that the discussions seem to be proceeding well. And I think it was really important that the Prime Minister hosted President Zelensky in Downing Street yesterday, along with Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz.

“Clearly, we need to do this properly, but if we can unlock some of these frozen Russian assets to ideally invest in the reconstruction of Ukraine, that would be a good thing.

“Obviously, we need to try and make progress on getting a ceasefire, because this conflict has been raging and doing untold damage and creating such devastation to the people of Ukraine. I’m also mindful that thousands of Russian soldiers are losing their lives every week as well in this conflict.

“And so for the good of everyone, I think we need to bring an end to this conflict and bring about that just and lasting peace that the Prime Minister has spoken about.

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“Clearly, the efforts of President Trump do mean, along with the efforts of the European partners to Zelensky, that it looks as if we might be closer than we have been in the last four years to bringing a resolution to this conflict, but it’s vital that that dialogue continues.

“It’s vital that we continue to work together to consider how we can best unlock some of those frozen Russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine.”

On the Leamington Spa case involving two Afghan asylum seekers, she said: “First of all, I’d like to say it sounds like an absolutely horrific case. And clearly, no matter what the immigration status of perpetrators in these sorts of horrific crimes, they need to be dealt with robustly and swiftly.

“I’m not going to get into the specifics of this case. I do understand that actually, age verification is very, very difficult to do, but the Home Secretary has announced a raft of new measures to tackle irregular migration to this country.

“I think the British people have seen that she is someone who is a serious politician and is going to crack on with this job, and I think she will be looking at a whole range of different issues so that we can make sure that we’ve got a robust immigration system that has integrity to it and that we can enforce.”