Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is returning to the UK from a family holiday in Europe early because of his concerns over “the worsening situation in Ukraine”.

The Cabinet minister only arrived in the undisclosed country on Saturday, having travelled there following diplomatic talks in Moscow.

But he said on Sunday that he had cancelled a “planned long weekend abroad with my family” because “we are concerned about the worsening situation in Ukraine”.

It was understood Mr Wallace had accepted he would be leaving the trip early before heading there, rather than the decision coming in light of new information.

A senior defence source said: “As events worsen, the Secretary of State has cut short a planned long weekend with his children for half-term.”

The decision is markedly different from the one made by Dominic Raab, who, as foreign secretary, stayed on a family holiday in Crete as the Taliban were marching back to power in Afghanistan.