MP Adam Holloway has said Britain should accept "many tens of thousands" of refugees from Ukraine, following his return from the war-torn country.

The Gravesham MP told TV news host and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage that those fleeing Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion should be treated differently to those he classed as "economic migrants" and should be offered sanctuary.

Speaking to GB News after his return from western Ukraine he said: "These people really are refugees and I think we can afford to be really very generous with the Ukrainians because this is not of their doing.

"Their menfolk are fighting this war on our behalf because we cannot get involved, so I have no issue with potentially many, many, many, tens of thousands coming here because they'll return – that's where their families are. We have to have a different category of asylum that doesn't mean that you stay here forever."

Mr Farage suggested that length of time could be "a year, two years?", to which Mr Holloway responded "whatever it is, we must do this."

Earlier in the interview he dismissed reports that Westminster had criticised his trip to Ukraine, in defiance of Foreign Office travel advice, as a "non story".

"I don't think I'm in too much trouble at all," he said. "It was a typical – what I think your viewers would call – mainstream media sort of non-story.

"Someone asked at a press conference whether or not an MP should travel and someone said they shouldn't break the travel advice. As I said I quite agree with that, we shouldn't break the travel advice but I think sometimes it is necessary – and it's advice as well."

Following the visit he explained he had spoken to a senior commander in the Ukrainian army. and showed Mr Farage a notebook, which he said contained a 'shopping list' of military equipment the Ukrainians need.

"I was talking to a three-star general and he said that the Russians' behaviour had done something he didn't think would ever be possible, and that that it had united the Ukrainians, and definitely that's what I felt. I stress I was not in Kyiv, I was in the big western city. The will is absolutely there, whether the means are is different.

"This is a massive massive operation by a very, very significant military power against the Ukrainians, who are doing amazingly. They've been modernising their army obviously for a while, they've got modern capable armed forces, they're receiving a lot of help from other countries – I think a couple of dozen almost are doing that, but they are fighting against the Russians, and that's a big deal.

"Nobody sane is saying that the west – Nato – should actually get involved in the fight, the Ukrainians can do that themselves, but we've got to give them the kit to do it.

"What they're screaming for is air defence systems. In this notebook I've got their shopping list of equipment. What's really striking is that they actually know where the air defence systems which they want are. For example they want a load from Finland. Finland recently upgraded its system and its old system, which is called the Buk system, they've actually got them in warehouses. The Ukrainians desperately want those because they've got Buk already and they know how to use them."

Mr Holloway also stated Britain should begin fracking as an alternative energy supply and told Mr Farage he should have been given a peerage for his "remarkable service to our country."