UKIP’s Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs spokesman James Carver MEP condemned yesterday’s devastating attack on innocent passengers of the St Petersburg Metro, which left 14 dead and dozens more injured.

Mr Carver said: “My heartfelt sympathy goes to all those affected by this atrocity and to the Russian people. It was nothing less than an act of sheer barbarism.”

“This is the fifth time Russia’s transport infrastructure has been attacked since 2007 – all of which have claimed serious loss of life.

Responding to calls from Theresa May today for closer ties with Saudi Arabia, UKIP’s Women’s and Equalities spokeswoman, Margot Parker MEP said:

“Whilst visiting Saudi Arabia, we call on the Prime Minister to raise the issue of horrific human rights abuse which takes place in that state every day.

“Theresa May must convey to the Saudi authorities that women are not second class citizens.

“To ignore brutal abuses on women and the flagrant discrimination against religious minorities in Saudi Arabia is to condone what is going on in this brutal regime.

UKIP Defence Spokesman Bill Etheridge has slammed a decision by politicians to force the Army to cut £10bn from the defence budget over the next decade calling it “irresponsible and illogical.”

Mr Etheridge said the decision to make the Army and the Navy “scrap it out” for funding was “bad government” and “all of our Armed Forces should be properly funded.”

“This failed policy of pushing the ‘soft power’ of foreign aid rather than hard power of a properly defended country is an irresponsible and illogical policy which has not worked so far and will continue to fail.

“Only this week there were rumours that our helicopter carrier HMS Ocean was being sold to Brazil: this is part of 3 Commando brigade which are one of our two brigades who can rapidly deploy to theatre. Are we only going to be left with one?

“Instead of hiding behind this bureaucratic shield that the government are meeting the NATO targets of 2% of GDP we need urgent investment in the military, which the Army’s own think tank concluded would be unable to withstand an attack from Russia for longer than an afternoon.

The statement put out today by the European Union setting out their guidelines for negotiating with the UK over the next two years is “bound to create more division amongst EU nations”, said Paul Nuttall, the UKIP Leader today.

“By wrapping the negotiations in a bureaucratic straitjacket all that they guarantee to do is highlight the already glaring differences of approach amongst the rump 27 nations in the bloc.”

“As we near March 2019 and the UK”s final days as a member, national politicians in national capitals will realise that the package approved by Brussels will not be in their own specific interests nor that of their citizens.

“Brussels wishes to play hardball with the reciprocal rights of individual citizens. How will Poland, for example, react when 1 million plus Poles live in the UK and only about 30,000 UK citizens live in Poland and their rights are threatened? Those million citizens vote, so do their friends and families. Polish people will expect their own Government to do a deal to protect their own citizens. The EU’s rigid approach will be seen as the problem, not the UK.

UKIP Defence Spokesman Bill Etheridge has slammed an attempted government whitewash in the latest of a long series of delays to the Royal Navy super carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth II as it emerges that divers inspecting the hull of the HMS Queen Elizabeth have discovered that the top coat of paint had failed to adhere properly. The news comes as the current fleet flagship, helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, may be sold to Brazil after twenty years of service in 2018.

When asked previously in Parliament why sea trials for the carrier were being delayed till the summer, when, all along, the spring had been the intended start date the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “It has always been our intention that Queen Elizabeth should be accepted into the Royal Navy before the end of this year. We are not giving specific dates as to when the sea trials are likely to commence.

Then when Defence Procurement Minister Harriett Baldwin faced the Commons Defence Committee she was asked by Madeleine Moon, what was behind the delay. She replied “By the very definition of what you’re going through when you’re going through trials is that you’re potentially in that trial process have to make some corrections to something, that’s the whole point of a trial.”