Don’t blame me for telling the truth about Putin’s war in Ukraine. Facing up the facts about the mistakes of the past has to be the first step towards the peaceful future we all want to see.

In my BBC Panorama interview on Friday, Nick Robinson outrageously accused me of “echoing” Russian president Vladimir Putin’s excuses for his invasion of Ukraine. The political establishment has since been busy echoing that slur.

So, let me set the record straight. I am not and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin. His invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible. As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe that Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine. Nobody can fairly accuse me of being an appeaser. I have never sought to justify Putin’s invasion in any way and I’m not now.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I saw it coming a decade ago, warned that it was coming and am one of the few political figures who has been consistently right and honest about Russia’s Ukraine war.