Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is not lifting sanctions on Russian oil “in any way whatsoever” after a trade licence allowing imports of jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries came into effect.
New Sanctions Package Defended
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said the “strong new package” of sanctions announced on Tuesday goes “well beyond” existing measures. The licence, introduced amid surging fuel costs due to the Iran war, permits indefinite imports of refined products from third countries.
The move has drawn heavy criticism from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who called it “insane” to water down sanctions while the UK Government refuses to fully exploit North Sea resources. Labour chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Dame Emily Thornberry, also expressed dismay, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Our allies in Ukraine have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand… given that we promised we would stop this loophole in October, and we still haven’t done it. In fact, it seems to have got worse. People feel very let down.”
Standard Phasing-In Practice
At PMQs, Mrs Badenoch accused the Government of having “sneaked out an announcement that it was removing sanctions on Russian oil.” Sir Keir responded: “Let me address the sanctions head-on, because we have been united across this House on these issues since the beginning of the conflict. What we announced yesterday was a strong new package of new sanctions going well beyond existing sanctions, so it is a new package. This includes new bans on maritime services on LNG and new bans on refined oil products from Russia.”
He added that the Government issued “two targeted short-term licences to phase the new sanctions in and to protect UK consumers. That is standard practice. This Government has phased in sanctions in this way before and the last government used exactly the same technique when they introduced sanctions. And when they did so, we supported them, because we could see the sanctions were the right thing to do to bear down on Russia.”
The sanctions were originally imposed as part of measures targeting Vladimir Putin’s economy after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sir Keir concluded: “These are new sanctions being phased in. This is not a question of lifting existing sanctions in any way whatsoever, and we will continue to work with our allies on further sanction packages.”
