A Liberal Democrat MP has been accused of an ‘abuse of power’ after sexting a Ukrainian translator during an official visit to the war-torn country.
The party is facing calls to strip the whip from Cameron Thomas over the ‘inappropriate’ advances.
The Tewkesbury MP sent intimate WhatsApp messages to the woman who had been tasked with working with the delegation of MPs in February while they were on a parliamentary visit to Ukraine.
The visit marked the third anniversary of Russia‘s invasion and involved travelling to the capital Kyiv and the city of Lviv, as well as attending a conference.
The WhatsApp messages – seen by this newspaper – include Mr Thomas, 42, telling the interpreter ‘I want you’ and ‘I wish I could stay with you for a few days’.
The Mail on Sunday understands the messages were then shown by the woman to others on the trip, who claimed they had made her uncomfortable. Mr Thomas denies any wrongdoing.
MPs have accused the RAF veteran of abusing his position as an MP on an official delegation to make advances to someone tasked with working with them.
One Tory MP aware of the allegations said: ‘Given the courage and sacrifice shown by Ukrainians in the fight for their country’s very existence, it is unthinkable that one of our MPs should be treating an official visit to a warzone in this way. To abuse his power as an MP by preying on a young woman is disgraceful. The Liberal Democrats should remove the whip.’
Liberal Democrat MP Cameron Thomas (pictured) has been accused of an ‘abuse of power’ after sexting a Ukrainian translator during an official visit to the war-torn country
The visit marked the third anniversary of Russia ‘s invasion and involved travelling to the capital Kyiv and the city of Lviv, as well as attending a conference (Pictured: Ukrainian troops training in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine)
The WhatsApp messages – seen by this newspaper – include Mr Thomas (pictured), 42, telling the interpreter ‘I want you’ and ‘I wish I could stay with you for a few days’
In the Commons register of interests, Mr Thomas declared the purpose of the visit as: ‘Support, aid, and to highlight areas that have been devastated by the war.’
The costs of his trip were met by several organisations, including telecoms network Kyivstar and the Yalta European Strategy, a forum founded by Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk.
Following the visit, Mr Thomas was one of 15 MPs and six peers banned from entering Russia. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the UK’s ‘confrontational’ stance towards Moscow was the reason for barring the politicians.
At the time, Mr Thomas said the ban had given him ‘the greatest possible endorsement’ of his parliamentary activity.
The MP said his visit to Ukraine, which saw him cross the border from Poland to Lviv before travelling to the capital, opened his eyes to ‘the devastation’ of the war. He told the BBC in March: ‘I found their people to be really, really hospitable.
‘They’re so incredibly resilient and they respect the British people so much, both for the support we’ve been giving them, and [because they] take inspiration for their own fight from the Battle of Britain. I very much hope we can see them through to victory in their own finest hour.’
A spokesman for Mr Thomas said last night: ‘These are private messages between two people who have remained in contact.’
