Philip Hutchinson, who stood in St Barnabas Ward, Winchester, in the 2024 elections said that he moved to Moscow alongside his wife after her visa was not renewed by the government.

Speaking to the Chronicle, Mr Hutchinson said: “My wife is from Russia, she studied in the UK and lived there for many years.

“(The government) did not renew her visa and gave her 28 days to leave the country. They said, ‘Do not worry, there are modern forms of communication so you can have your marriage normally, or you can integrate to Moscow’. So, it did not leave us with many options. I don’t know how you can fulfil a full relationship through the internet.

“It made sense to come here. I was a bit sceptical at first, especially with everything going on at the moment in terms of Ukraine, etc, but I thought ‘I’m sure it’s not exactly as the media portrays it to be, let’s go and find out for ourselves’, and that’s what I decided to do.

Philip Hutchinson (Right) with Matt Hancock (Image: Philip Hutchinson)

“There’s been people (family and friends), who have been sceptical, there have been people who have been happy for me. It depends really. The western media does not portray Russia as a place to be going to right now. But the reality is it is nothing like the media portrays, life goes on.”

Having now settled in Moscow, Mr Hutchinson runs a business helping those who move to Russia from the rest get integrated in the country, with the businessman noting that the main people coming into the country are from the UK, the USA, France, Germany and Italy.

He said: “I’ve had a bit of push-back from the UK government, for example, who probably don’t like some of the things I’m doing in terms of the partnerships I’m forging with the government over here, and going on national TV channels in Russia and criticising the British government. But, at the end of the day, they did not leave me much choice. It’s them that went on this path. I could have stayed in the UK, I could have contributed to the UK system, paid a lot of tax in the UK. But they chose to go the other way.”