British army tanks are not needed to guard Wiltshire, Boris Johnson said as he urged countries to supply Ukraine with battle armour.

Mr Johnson who is a vocal supporter of the Ukrainian effort to defend itself against the invasion by Russia, was telling countries like the US and Germany, as well as the British government, they should start sending the much-needed tanks for use by the Ukrainian forces.

In an article for the Daily Mail the former prime minister, now a backbench Conservative MP wrote: “The Ukrainians need hundreds of tanks, and they should be getting them from the Americans, the Germans, the Poles and many others."

“Where does the western world need to station those tanks at the moment? Guarding North Rhine-Westphalia? Protecting Tennessee? Prowling the villages of Wiltshire?

Swindon Advertiser:

“So let me pose the question again: what conceivable grounds can there be for delay? Why are we not giving the Ukrainians all the help that they need, now, when they need it?”

Mr Johnson said when he was prime minister his caution over Ukraine joining NATO was misplaced. “What is the result of our decades-long failure to live up to our promise and admit the Ukrainians to the shelter of the Nato defensive umbrella?”

“The result is the bloodiest war in Europe for 80 years. For the sake of clarity and stability and long-term peace, it is now clear, which it wasn’t before Putin’s invasion, that Ukraine must join.”