A FORMER Braintree MP who left the world of politics after a scandal has found a new calling on the streets of war-torn Ukraine.

Brooks Newmark was MP for Braintree for ten years but resigned in 2014 over a sex scandal involving a work colleague.

Today, from the city of Aaporzhzhia which is currently under Russian bombardment, he revealed the charity he set up – Angels for Ukraine – had successfully evacuated thousands of people from the under attack country.

Mr Newmark has helped bring more than 20,000 Ukrainian refugees to Britain after working with them for the last year.

Braintree and Witham Times: Brooks Newmark pictured on a Ukrainian road littered with landminesBrooks Newmark pictured on a Ukrainian road littered with landmines (Image: N/A)

The former MP said he felt an “urge” to help when the war in Ukraine broke out – partly because he had seen the destruction caused by President Assad and Russia in Syria, and felt that the West could have done more to help.

He went out to the region in March last year and joined a team that was using a bus to evacuate people fleeing Ukraine.

Mr Newmark said one of the first things he saw was a shoe appear from a mass grave in Bucha and a Kiev suburb where more than 400 civilians were massacred.

He also said: “I saw a woman crying inconsolably and she told me she had witnessed her daughter blown up by a bomb as she was talking to her on FaceTime. That story really resonated with me.”

Braintree and Witham Times: Newmark has said evacuating women and children from the war zones were among the most urgent issuesNewmark has said evacuating women and children from the war zones were among the most urgent issues (Image: N/A)

The 64-year-old ex-politician described the first six months of the war as “incredibly intense” but as the situation seemed to calm down, his organisation had begun evacuating people with severe injuries to the Polish border so they could be airlifted to Germany for hospital treatment.

Mr Newmark said evacuating women and children from the war zones were still among the most urgent issues and his organisation is working with local authorities and bus drivers to give the population a way out.

The former MP has helped to evacuate more than 40 women and children near the city of Izium in eastern Ukraine.

Angels for Ukraine has just signed an agreement with the Ukrainian ministry of health and will now also be taking wounded soldiers to safety too.