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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Kwasi Kwarteng tones down anti-fracking rhetoric after No 10 hints at U-turn – as it happened

United Kingdom Ukraine Boris Johnson Diana Johnson Kwasi Kwarteng Russia Vladimir Putin
Kwasi Kwarteng
Kwasi Kwarteng says the government will take a precautionary approach that supports shale gas exploration. Photograph: WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Early evening summary

  • Downing Street has refused to rule out lifting the government’s moratorium on fracking, saying “all options” would be considered as the government considered how to end the UK’s reliance on Russian energy. (See 2.10pm.) The briefing seemed to embarrass Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, who was giving a statement to MPs an hour or so later and who recently dismissed fracking as a solution to the UK’s energy problems. (See 2.39pm.)
  • Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has said the west must go “further and faster” in its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying victory for President Putin would have “terrible implications for European and global security”. In a press conference in Washington with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, she said:

We know from history that aggressors only understand one thing, and that is strength.

We know that if we don’t do enough now, other aggressors around the world will be emboldened.

And we know that if Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, there will be terrible implications for European and global security. We would be sending a message that sovereign nations can simply be trampled on.

So we must go further and faster in our response.

That is all from me for today. But our Ukraine coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.

Updated

These are from my colleage Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence editor, on the briefing from western sources earlier about the risk of Russia using chemical weapons. (See 4.47pm.)

Q: If the plan is for Putin to fail, are you trying to encourage oligarchs to overthrow him?

Truss says the objective is for Putin to fail in Ukraine. His unwarranted act of aggression must not succeed. And the purpose of sanctions is to debilitate the Russian economy, she says.

She says one purpose of the sanctions is to ensure that the technology needed by Russia to develop its military-industrial complex is not available.

Blinken says the west has tried to provide “off ramps” (exit routes) to Putin. But he has not taken them, he says.

Putin is now laying waste to Ukraine.

If he wants to impose a puppet regime, it is obvious Ukrainians will never accept that. And if he tries to prop that up militarily, it will be a long, bloody mess.

Blinken says the US is doing all it can to ensure that the Ukrainians can defend themselves, to put pressure on Putin to change course, and to help those suffering.

He says he is convinced Putin will fail, and Russia will suffer a strategic defeat.

Updated

Truss says the attack on a children’s hospital in Mariupol is reckless and abhorrent.

Updated

Q: What more can the US and the UK do? Are you open to a no-fly zone being set up?

Truss says the UK has been supplying Ukraine with defensive weapons. Today Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, announced that an air-defence system would be supplied.

On a no-fly zone, she says this would lead to confrontation with Russia.

Blinken says he agrees.

Updated

Liz Truss says since the end of the cold war the west has taken its eye off the ball. It must never let down its guard again.

She says Nato is being strengthened, and the US and the UK are encouraging other countries to step up their defence spending.

She says the war in Ukraine is about freedom. Putin must fail, she says.

Updated

Antony Blinken opens the press conference, saying he has been working with Liz Truss not just on Ukraine, but on a range of issues. On Ukraine there has been “extraordinary close coordination”.

He says that, in almost 30 years working in foreign policy, he cannot remember seeing “such unity in the transatlantic relationship, both in policy and in principle”.

Western officials have warned of their “serious concern” that Vladimir Putin could use chemical weapons in Ukraine to commit further atrocities during the invasion, PA Media reports. PA says:

Their assessment was that an “utterly horrific” attack on the capital of Kyiv could come as Russian forces overcome the logistical issues suspected of delaying their attacks.

The warnings came on Wednesday as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said children were among those under the wreckage of a “direct strike” at a maternity hospital in the southern port city of Mariupol.

An official said: “I think we have good reason to be concerned about possible use of non-conventional weapons, partly because of what we have seen happen in other theatres.

“As I’ve mentioned before, for example, what we’ve seen in Syria, partly because we’ve seen a bit of setting the scene for that in the false flag claims that are coming out, and other indications as well.

“So it’s a serious concern for us.”

Updated

Liz Truss's press conference in Washington with Antony Blinken

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, will shortly be holding a press conference at the state department in Washington with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state.

I will be focusing mainly on what Truss has to say, and on the UK-related aspects of the press conference. My colleague Joanna Walters, who is writing US Politics Live, will be focusing more on the US aspects. Her blog is here.

The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra has removed the Russian composer Tchaikovsky from its programme of upcoming concerts due to the current conflict in Ukraine, saying it would be “inappropriate at this time”, PA Media reports.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said that she has asked the UK government to let Scotland run its own refugee programme for Ukrainians. Immigration policy is a matter reserved for Westminster, but Sturgeon said she had asked ministers in London if Scotland could run its own programme. She said:

We have put a proposition to the UK government about how the Scottish government, working with councils, the Refugee Council here, would effectively run a refugee programme, that we would match people with accommodation and provide the support.

The family route ... is the only route open right now for Ukrainians, [and] is proving horrendously bureaucratic.

The other route they hope to open is the community sponsorship route. It cannot be allowed to be mired in that bureaucracy.

But what we’re saying to the UK government is make the requirements minimal, allow them to be done in this country, and allow the Scottish government working with agencies here to deliver that on the ground.

Sturgeon said the obstacles being put in the way for Ukrainain refugees using the family scheme (the only special visa scheme currently open to them) were “unconscionable”. She cited one example:

I have heard from one Ukrainian living here in Scotland right now about how a family member who has fled Ukraine, managed – after an arduous journey – to get to Poland and one of the things they have had to prove is that they were living in Ukraine before a certain date. This person left with nothing. That is just beyond acceptable.

Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh Ukrainian club today where donations are being collected for refugees.
Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh Ukrainian club today where donations are being collected for refugees. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty

Updated

Lord Agnew, who resigned as a Treasury minister over what he described as his own government’s lax approach to tackling fraud, told the Treasury committee this afternoon that as a minister he witnessed “a weak system which allows money to fall into the laps of crooks”. He said:

I believe very strongly that the taxpayer deserves that the government should use their money wisely and an issue like the management of countering fraud is a cross-party issue.

I don’t think there is anybody who would condone a weak system which allows money to fall into the laps of crooks, and that’s what I saw happening.

In any of these situations you try and bring about change from inside the tent but you get to a point where that just doesn’t seem to be working.

Lord Agnew
Lord Agnew. Photograph: HoL/Lord Agnew

Updated

Labour has confirmed that it is opposed to lifting the moratorium on fracking. At a post-PMQs briefing, a spokeperson for Keir Starmer said:

We’ve spoken out against fracking - it is clear it is not something that has public support and we don’t see it as a solution to the current problem.

This is from PA Media on the “absolute mess” at the UK visa application centre in Rzeszow in Poland described in the tweets from Alistair Bunkall referenced earlier. (See 2.52pm.)

The daughter of a Ukrainian refugee has said the UK visa system is an “absolute mess” after police were called to calm “angry” crowds at an application centre in south-east Poland.

People fleeing the Russian invasion were banging on the centre’s windows from the street when police arrived on Tuesday, as staff told the crowds in Rzeszow that they were only able to see to 100 applications in one day.

Marianne Kay, 43, was born and grew up in the Ukrainian city of Lviv but has lived in Yorkshire for about 20 years, and called the UK’s “impossible” visa system “beyond a mess”.

Kay, who works in IT management at the University of Leeds, told the PA news agency: “People were angry, they lost patience – they are very tired.

“It was obvious (the staff) were scared of the crowds because it is scary. Eventually the police came because it was so loud and so bad ... people were on the street banging on the windows because they wanted to come in.”

Updated

Sky’s Alistair Bunkall has a good Twitter thread on the experience of people trying to use a pop-up visa application centre in Rzeszow in Poland. It starts here.

This is from the MoD, explaing why Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, could not stay long at the home affairs committee this morning. (See 11.20am.)

Kwarteng tones down his anti-fracking rhetoric after No 10 hints U-turn may be imminent

In the Commons Kerry McCarthy (Lab) told Kwasi Kwarteng that he had twice ignored questions about the government’s policy on fracking. She invited him to have another go.

This time Kwarteng did address the issue. He said he was energy minister at the time the government set out its position on fracking. He went on:

The government has always been clear that we will take a precautionary approach that supports shale gas exploration if it can be done in a safe and sustainable way. That remains our position. And we will be evidence-led.

This is what we wrote and said in 2019, and we are still committed to that.

That is quite different from the tone Kwarteng adopted in an article in the Mail on Sunday at the weekend (quoted by Jim Pickard at 2.21pm). This is what he wrote then.

Onshore fracking is very different. Those calling for its return misunderstand the situation we find ourselves in.

First, the UK has no gas supply issues. And even if we lifted the fracking moratorium tomorrow, it would take up to a decade to extract sufficient volumes – and it would come at a high cost for communities and our precious countryside.

Second, no amount of shale gas from hundreds of wells dotted across rural England would be enough to lower the European price any time soon. And with the best will in the world, private companies are not going to sell the shale gas they produce to UK consumers below the market price. They are not charities, after all.

Updated

This is from the FT’s Jim Pickard, explaining why Kwasi Kwarteng has avoided answering questions about fracking in his statement to MPs. (See 2.10pm.)

In the Commons Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has just made a statement confirming that the government will ban imports of Russian oil by the end of the year.

In his response Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary of state for climate change and net zero, confirmed that Labour backed the policy. But he asked Kwarteng to confirm that the moratorium on fracking would remain in place. He also asked if the government would abandon what he described as an effective moratorium on new onshore wind turbines in planning regulations, saying that since 2015 this had denied the UK the equivalent of the amount of power derived from Russia gas imports.

Will he confirm that the moratorium that was put in place will remain in place, no ifs, no buts, as fracking would not make any difference to the prices consumers pay, is dangerous, and would take decades to come on stream? ...

Does he agree we should finally end the effective moratorium on on-shore wind in the planning regulations, which has denied us power each and every year since 2015 equivalent to our gas imports from Russia?

In his reply Kwarteng did not address either of these points. He said he was glad Labour was committed to renewables, and he did not refer to fracking at all.

Updated

No 10 refuses to rule out lifting moratorium on fracking, saying 'all options' being considered

Here are the main points from the post-PMQs Downing Street lobby briefing.

  • No 10 would not rule out lifting the government’s moratorium on fracking, saying “all options” would be considered as the government considered how to end the UK’s reliance on Russian energy. The Telegraph reports today that Boris Johnson is considering reviving fracking. Asked about the story, the No 10 spokesperson said he would “not get ahead of the energy supply strategy that we will set out in the coming days but, as you would expect, we will obviously consider all options”. Asked if that meant government policy was changing, he said:

The moratorium on fracking remains in place. But as I say, you would expect the prime minister to look at all options given what has happened in Ukraine, given the rising cost in oil and gas, the wholesale prices and the effect that is having here in the UK. And he has been clear that he will set out an energy supply strategy.

  • The spokesperson said the UK has now issued 957 Ukrainians visas to people fleeing Russian invasion.
  • He said Johnson has “full faith” in Priti Patel, the home secretary, who is facing strong criticism from Tory colleagues for her handling of the refugee situation.
  • The spokesperson said the new visa application centre at Lille is being set up today and will start accepting appointments from tomorrow morning.
Boris Johnson leaving No 10 earlier.
Boris Johnson leaving No 10 earlier. Photograph: WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Covid-19 antibody levels among UK adults have reached a new record high, PA Media reports. PA says:

Some 98.4% of the adult population in England is now estimated to have antibodies, along with 98.3% in both Scotland and Wales and 98.1% in Northern Ireland.

The presence of coronavirus antibodies implies someone has had the infection in the past or has been vaccinated.

The latest figures, which have been calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are for the week ending February 20 and are the highest for all four UK nations since estimates began at the end of 2020.

In the Commons John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, said he and Keir Starmer would be flying to Estonia tonight to show their support for the British troops supporting the Nato mission there. In his response to Ben Wallace, he said:

Our Labour commitment to Nato is unshakable and the government again has our full support for reinforcing Nato nations on the alliance’s eastern border with Russia.

The Labour leader and I fly out tonight to Tallinn to reassure Estonia of the united UK determination to defend their security and to thank our British forces deployed there from the Royal Tank Regiment and the Royal Welsh Battlegroup.

It was Labour’s postwar foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, who was the principal architect of Nato, and in particular its article 5 commitment to collective defence. Today is the anniversary of Bevin’s birth in 1881. So today, let President Putin be in no doubt that our commitment to Article 5 is absolute.

Updated

Wallace says serving soldiers going to fight in Ukraine will be breaking the law

In the Commons Ben Wallace told MPs that British soldiers who went to Ukraine to fight would be breaking the law. He explained:

The government position is if you are a serving member of the armed forces you will be breaking the law [if you go to Ukraine to fight].

There were reports in a weekend newspaper about three members who had gone AWOL over the weekend. They will be breaking the law and they will be prosecuted when they return for going absent without leave or deserting.

For others, as the government travel advice is don’t go to Ukraine, we strongly discourage them from joining these forces. My experience from having been security minister is people who went off to join the YPG [the Kurdish militia fighting in Syria] and other organisations: it didn’t end well.

It is also the case that, as a number are now discovering, the Ukrainians are very clear: you turn up, you are in it for the whole game. You are not in it for a selfie and six weeks, you are in it for real.

I think we have already seen some people at the borders find that may not be the right option to follow.

Updated

This is from Charles Lister from the Middle East Institute thinktank.

Wallace gives details to MPs of further weapons shipments from UK for Ukraine

Here is a fuller summary of what Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, said in his statement to MPs about the war in Ukraine.

  • Wallace said the UK would be sending more weapons to Ukraine. He said the government was sending a small consignment of Javelin anti-tank missiles and is looking at sending Starstreak high-velocity manned portable anti-air missiles. The UK has already sent 3,615 anti-tank weapons, he said.

On 17 January, I announced to the House the government’s intention to supply military aid to the Ukrainian armed forces. The initial supply was to be 2,000 new light anti-tank weapons, smaller arms and ammunition. In response to further acts of aggression by Russia we have now increased that supply.

I can update the house as of today we will have delivered 3,615 NLAWs (anti-tank missiles) and will continue to deliver more. We will shortly be starting the delivery of small consignments of anti-tank Javelin missiles as well.

Wallace said the government was “bound by the decision to supply defensive systems” and not escalate the war. He went on:

In response to a Ukrainian request, the government has taken the decision to explore the donation of Starstreak high-velocity manned portable anti-air missiles. We believe that this system will remain within the definition of defensive weapons but will allow the Ukrainian force to better defend their skies.

We shall also be increasing the supplies of rations, medical equipment and other non-lethal military aid.

  • He said the Ukrainians estimate the number of civilians killed or injured to be more than 1,000, but added: “The true figure is expected to be much higher and I’m afraid worse is likely to come.
  • He said he expected the Russian campaign to become ‘more brutal and more indiscriminate’.
  • He said 1,000 British troops were available in countries bordering Ukraine to support the humanitarian response.

Updated

Wallace says the Ukrainians estimate that 211 schools have been damaged or destroyed. There has also been footage of kindergartens being hit.

He says the president has talked about children dying of thirst.

The Ukrainians estimate that 1,000 civilians have been killed or injured, but the true figure is likely to be higher, he says.

UK considering supplying Ukraine with high-velocity anti-air missiles

Wallace says the UK is considering supplying Ukraine with Starstreak high-velocity anti-air missiles. He says the MoD thinks these would count as defensive weapons.

Britain has now supplied 3,615 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, Wallace says, and will also shortly be supplying a small consignment of Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Updated

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, is making a statement to MPs about the war.

He says, according to the Ukrainian army, the Russians have lost 285 tanks, 985 armoured fighting vehicles, 109 artillery systems, 50 multiple launch rocket systems, 44 aircraft and 48 helicopters.

He says the Ukrainians also think the Russians have lost 11,000 soldiers.

But he stresses that these are Ukrainian figures; the UK has not been able to verify them.

Updated

Johnson implies visa refugee waiver could heighten risk of UK facing attacks here from Russian agents

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, recalls the UK’s long history of taking in refugees. But this week Ukrainians were sent away because they did not have the right paperwork. He says the military should be dispatched to help.

Johnson says Davey is wrong in what he said. He says 1,000 people are already in under the existing system. (A few minutes ago he was saying nearly 1,000 visas had been issued.)

But it is important to have checks, he says. Some people want to abandon them. He says that would be irresponsible. The Kremlin has singled out this country. We know how unscrupulous Vladimir Putin can be. He says it would not be right to expose the UK to greater risks.

UPDATE: Johnson said:

We’ve already got 1,000 people in under the existing scheme, that number will climb very sharply. No-one has been turned away ...

We know how unscrupulous Putin can be in his methods, it would not be right to expose this country to unnecessary security risk and we will not do it. We are going to be as generous as we can possibly be, but we must have checks.

Updated

Paul Maynard (Con) asks if the PM will meet him to discuss how Blackpool can be a showcase for levelling up.

Johnson recalls his last visit to Blackpool, and says he hopes to see high-skill jobs created there.

Abena Oppong-Asare (Lab) says the UK cannot be a home to people who support Russia. Has the PM ever overruled security advice when appointing peers?

No, says Johnson.

He says the Kremlin has criticised the UK for taking the lead on global sanctions.

(As my colleague Dan Sabbagh explains here, the allegation about Boris Johnson in relation to Evgeny Lebedev is not that he overruled the intelligence agencies, but that he leant on them to revise their assessment.)

Updated

Barbara Keeley (Lab) says people who have additional electricity costs for items like electric wheelchairs need extra help. She says a windfall tax on energy companies would help.

Johnson concedes that the vulnerable will be most at risk, and he says the government will look to address this.

Updated

John Penrose (Con) asks if the government will take away “golden visas” for Russian oligarchs who made their money illicitly.

Johnson says that will be possible.

Peter Dowd (Lab) says he has come from a meeting where families with relatives in care homes said they are still finding it hard to get access to their loved ones. Will the government legislate to address this?

Johnson says the restrictions for care homes have been relaxed. He is happy to have a meeting on this.

Updated

Ric Holden (Con) says a hospital in his constituency is being closed. But a new community hospital is planned, as part of the government’s hospital programme.

Johnson says he is delighted the hospital is being built.

John Stevenson (Con) asks the government to review regulations that might hold back food security for the UK.

Johnson says food security is crucial. He says the food companies are getting more time to adjust to the new anti-obesity rules.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, calls for a cut in VAT on fuel, and a cut in excise duty, and he says the government should not let the Northern Ireland protocol stop people in Northern Ireland benefiting.

Johnson says the government will take steps to protect people from the whole of the UK.

Julian Smith, the former Tory chief whip, says he thinks people are concerned by the “tone” of the government’s approach to refugees. He asks the government to look at this again.

Johnson says the government has done a lot to resettle people. He says Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, will give details of the sponsorship scheme for Ukrainian refugees “in the next few days”.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says 760 visa approvals in two weeks is shameful. He says Poland has taken over 1.2 million refugees, Hungary more than 190,000, and Germany over 50,000. The Home Office’s response has been one of the worst in Europe, he says.

Johnson says almost 1,000 people have now had visas. He expects those numbers to rise sharply, and he says he expects hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to come to the UK.

Blackford says Johnson does not understand the urgency. People are fleeing war crimes, and the home secretary is blocking them with bureaucracy. He says we have seen this many times in the past. The Home Office is offering bureaucracy, when it should be offering compassion. Will the government waive visa restrictions for Ukrainians?

Johnson claims the government has an unparalleled record. The PM, the deputy PM and the home secretary are all descended from refugees. The UK is the single biggest donor of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, he says.

Updated

Johnson warns there are 'dark days ahead, and difficult times' as opposition to Putin continues

Starmer says opposing Putin will lead to extra costs. But people can manage those costs if there is a windfall tax on energy companies, he claims.

Johnson says he is junking “failed energy policies” that left the UK without enough nuclear power. He claims to be overjoyed that Labour favours nuclear too. They must work together to maintain their opposition to Putin, he says. He says there will be “dark days ahead, and difficult times”, but the UK will come through this stronger, he says.

“Come off it,” says Starmer. He says Labour is in favour of nuclear power. But Johnson cannot get a single brick laid for a new nuclear plant.

Johnson says, under Labour, nuclear fell from producing about 25% of UK energy needs to about 10%.

He says the government is supporting households with energy costs, and it can do this because it has the fastest growth in the G7. If we had listened to “Captain Hindsight”, we would still be in lockdown, he claims.

Starmer says the PM is “protecting energy profits not working people”. More renewables are needed. But the Tories have effectively banned onshore wind. Will the PM relax planning laws and end this effective ban?

Johnson says, thanks to government policies, the government is only dependent on Russian gas for 3% of its supply. He says Starmer has also committed to backing more nuclear powers. He claims that is new, and says there is “more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth”. Labour cancelled nuclear power, he says.

“We’ll see how long that position lasts,” Starmer says. He says energy companies are making huge profits, making more money than they know what to do with. When will the government put a windfall tax on those profits?

Johnson claims that would just lead to energy companies putting prices up even more. And it would discourage them from divesting in hydrocarbons. He repeats his claim to be rectifying mistakes made by Labour.

Starmer says the PM does not understand the problem. In the autumn bills are due to shoot up by £1,000. So when will the PM ask the chancellor to U-turn.

Johnson says if Starmer wants the chancellor to U-turn on the help already offered, “he is out of his mind”.

Of course, that is not the sort of U-turn Starmer is talking about.

Keir Starmer says a typical energy bill will go up by £700 next month. The government has just offered people a £200 loan, assuming that prices will fall. But Ukraine has changed that. When will the PM force the chancellor into a U-turn?

Johnson says he will be setting out an energy independence plan, to reverse mistakes made in the past, including by Labour, which did not invest in nuclear.

Pauline Latham (Con) says her son died aged 44 from a rare condition. Early diagnosis can lead to people being treated. She asks for more research into aortic dissection.

Johnson says fast diagnosis is crucial. Nice is looking to do further work in this area, he says.

Updated

Boris Johnson starts by saying that never before has the Commons listened to an address like yesterday’s, from President Zelenskiy. The defence secretary will set out what more the UK will be doing later, he says.

PMQs

PMQs will be starting soon.

Afterwards there will be two Ukraine-related statements: first (just after 12.30pm) from Ben Wallace, the defence secretary; and about an hour later another from Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, on the Russian oil import ban.

At the Commons home affairs committee, Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said the government should not be using a complex and bureaucratic immigration system, often designed to make it harder for people to stay in the UK, in response to a humanitarian crisis. This is from the BBC’s Dominic Casciani.

Updated

John Lichfield, who has covered France for British newspapers for many years, has posted an interesting thread on Twitter explaining why the Home Office is so reluctant to open a visa application centre in Calais. It starts here.

Brexit red tape stopping small charities getting supplies to Ukraine

Brexit red tape is preventing small charities and members of the public from bringing supplies to the Ukrainian border to help ease the deepening humanitarian crisis, my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports.

Ukrainian ambassador backs calls for temporary visa waiver, but suggests number of refugees wanting to come to UK may be limited

Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, did not have long at the Commons home affairs committee this morning. The chair, Dame Diana Johnson, explained that he had to leave by about 10.30am, and no one challenged the idea that he might have more pressing engagements. But he had a lot to say in his short stint before them. Here are the main points.

  • Prystaiko said he would like to see a temporary visa waiver for Ukrainians coming to the UK. But he did not push the point aggressively, stressing that it was a matter for the UK. He said:

I understand how sensitive it is for your society, especially after the immigration crisis, refugee crisis with Syrians, which we believe was manufactured by Russia pushing out these people from Syria, flooding with immigration, wave after wave, to Europe.

[A visa waiver] would definitely resolve all the issues, but how reasonable, how justified it is with your own system, that’s frankly for you to decide. We will be happy if all the barriers are dropped for some period of time when we can get maximum [numbers] of people, then we will deal with that.

  • He said that around 50,000 to 60,000 Ukrainians were in Britain usually, which meant at least 100,000 people might be trying to reunite with relatives in the UK. He said:

I guess that people will unite with their families, and if you have 50-60,000 of them, I would expect 100,000 – at least – to come here to their relatives, some of them just members of families of your citizens who have no Ukrainian blood but for different reasons they have connections ... which we are not aware of.

But he also played down these numbers, saying that overall he did not expect a large number of Ukrainian refugees to try to come to the UK. He said:

If you can vote for some temporary releasing of us from these rules, to allow people to get here, we will take care of [them]. I don’t expect many of them to come.

  • He said most Ukrainians fleeing the country would want to stay in the region. (See 10.40am)
  • He said that Ukrainians have for many years had difficulty getting visas to visit the UK and that even his wife had problems getting one when he was appointed ambassador. He said:

To process visas, it was always bureaucratic hassles. I have to tell you that, even when I was coming here as ambassador, I got my visa on time. Although I was already approved by your government, my wife didn’t have it.

He said Ukraine had a visa regime with EU countries that worked “quite beautifully”, but Ukraine “never managed to open this particular nation [the UK]”. He said EU countries managed to operate strict immigration systems, like the UK, while having more flexible rules for Ukrainians. And even the US offered what was “more or less” a visa-free regime, because it offered 10-year visas, he said.

  • He said Ukraine would like the UK to supply it with fighter jets. During the session he was overwhelmingly positive about the help already being supplied by the UK, and he made this comment as an aside, almost a joke. Asked whether he would like to see the UK send a plane to Poland to collect refugees wanting to come to Britain, he replied: “If you want to send planes, send F-16s.”
  • He said some of the donations to the embasssy from Britons have not been practical. He said:

There are very kind people with good intentions who are sending kids’ bicycles and expecting us to send them all the way to Kyiv, to Ukraine right now, which is not reasonable to do (and) resource-wise, it is not even possible.

He also said the embassy was having to stop people from going to Ukraine, despite them offering transport to refugees, as “we don’t want to have to take care of yet another citizen of the UK on our territory instead of fighting”.

Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador, speaking to the Commons home affairs committee.
Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador, speaking to the Commons home affairs committee. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Campaigners showing support for Ukraine at a rally in Trafalgar Square, London, last night.
Campaigners showing support for Ukraine at a rally in Trafalgar Square, London, last night. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Imperial Brands (formerly Imperial Tobacco), which makes Davidoff and JPS cigarettes, has joined the exodus from Russia in response to the Ukraine conflict, announcing it has halted production at its factory in Volgograd and stopped all sales and marketing activity in the country, PA Media reports. The group said it will continue to pay its workforce of about 1,000 in Russia while operations are suspended. Imperial said:

This decision comes amid a highly challenging environment in Russia as a result of international sanctions and consequential severe disruption.

Updated

Most Ukrainians who have fled war will want to stay in region, ambassador tells MPs

Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainain ambassador to the UK, has been giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee. He told the committee that most Ukrainians who have fled the country because of the war will want to stay in the region, rather than coming to a country like the UK. He explained:

I want to tell you straight away that the natural place for Ukrainians is close to most of our Slavic tribe, if I can put it like that - independent nations like Poland and Slovakia, where people do not have any language barrier.

Most Ukrainians will naturally stay close to their homes, to their roots, because families are unfortunately split - the elderly, the women with kids, fled Ukraine when most of the men and women are fighting back home.

Earlier Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said the Ukrainian government also wanted refugees to stay in the region, to increase the chances of their returning when it was safe to do so. (See 10.10am.)

Prystaiko also told the committee that Ukrainians who did come to the UK did not want to be a “burden” on the system. He said:

Most of these people are well educated and have their own business ideas - most of them are in professions which can be done remotely, like IT.

Labour urges government to issue simple, emergency visas to Ukrainian refugees

On the Today programme Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the government should be offering emergency visas, requiring minimal paperwork, to Ukrainains wanting to come to the UK. She said:

Offer emergency visas that can be issued really swiftly, rather than people having to fill in these 14-page forms or rather than having to upload documents.

It just beggars belief that people are being asked to do this when they have fled a war zone, when they have had to leave everything behind, when they have been risking life and limb, in the face of Russian bombardment. People shouldn’t be treated like this.

Fuel prices have hit a new record high, PA Media reports. PA says figures from data firm Experian Catalist show the average cost of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts yesterday was 158.2p, up from 156.4p on Monday. The average cost of a litre of diesel reached a new high of 165.2p yesterday, up from 162.3p on Monday.

Zelenskiy does not want refugees to travel too far away from Ukraine, Shapps says

And here are more lines from Grant Shapps’s interview round this morning.

  • Shapps, the transport secretary, said 760 visas have now been issued to Ukrainians wanting to come to the UK through the family scheme. Yesterday afternoon the figure given by the Home Office was 500. Shapps also said 22,000 applications were being processed.
  • He said the Ukrainian government did not want refugees to travel too far from Ukraine, because it wanted them to go back when it was safe. He said:

Geographically we are, of course, spaced further to the west [than other European countries] and President Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian government have told me that they do not want people to move far away, if at all possible, from the country because they want people to be able to come back.

  • He said it was wrong for British soldiers to leave the army and travel to Ukraine to join the fight against the Russians. According to the Telegraph, up to four British soldiers may have done this. But Shapps said this was the wrong thing to do. He said:

You cannot go and fight if you’re in the British Army, you cannot just get up and go and fight. Of course that’s inappropriate behaviour and you would expect the army to have some very, very strict rules in place, as they do.

Asked what Russia might do if a British soldier was captured or killed, Shapps replied:

There’s a big difference between Britain sending its army in and some people who are breaking with our law and going to do it.

But, clearly, this is a dangerous situation. And clearly, we want to make sure that the assistance we’re providing is done in an official way - like the anti-tank missiles that we provided prior to and during this conflict, and like the 22,000 Ukrainians that we’ve trained.

Updated

Shapps says ban on Russian oil imports will lead to 'some higher energy prices'

Yesterday, when the government announced that it would ban Russian oil imports by the end of the year, ministers implied that there would be little or no impact on consumers. “Working with industry, we are confident that this can be achieved over the course of the year, providing enough time for companies to adjust and ensuring consumers are protected,” Boris Johnson said, in a statement included in the government’s press release. And Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, was even more specific. He said:

We have more than enough time for the market and our supply chains to adjust to these essential changes. Businesses should use this year to ensure a smooth transition so that consumers will not be affected.

But analysts said the ban would push up prices. And this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said there would be a negative impact for consumers. He told Sky News:

We need to stem the flow of [Vladimir] Putin’s gas and oil blood money from funding his war machine. I think that the British people - even though it will, of course, lead to some higher energy prices, although we’ve probably already seen that as they’re happening already - the British people are not prepared to see us funding Putin’s horrific war.

And so I think it’s very, very important that we take this step, we will step up our own production.

Grant Shapps.
Grant Shapps. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

‘We will fight until the end’: how the papers covered Zelenskiy’s Commons speech

My colleague Martin Farrer has a good summary of how the morning papers have covered the Ukrainain president’s speech to MPs yesterday.

Shapps says private jet has been 'impounded' over suspected oligarch links as Russian flight ban rules tightened

Good morning. “Where are all these mansions [being] seized?”, a Ukrainian activist asked Boris Johnson angrily in Poland last week. The question reflected a concern that the UK has not done enough to directly penalise Russian oligarchs who operate in the UK. But this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said that he had effectively “impounded” a private jet linked to an oligarch that landed at Farnborough airport. The plane has not been seized under sanctions legislation. But Shapps revoked its flight permit, preventing it from leaving as planned yesterday, to allow more time to establish who exactly owns it, and whether it is covered by sanctions already in place. As the Telegraph reports, the jet is thought to be linked to an oligarch friendly with Roman Abramovic, but it is registered to what seems to be a shell company, and the exact ownership is not clear.

Shapps told BBC Breakfast this morning that Russian private jets had already been banned from the UK, but that there were gaps in the rules. He said:

However there were potential loopholes and I also wanted to make the issue a criminal one, so last night I also signed a law which closes off some of those loopholes to do with trying to work out the ownership of some of these aircraft.

There is one such aircraft on the ground at Farnborough that I have essentially impounded whilst we carry out further investigations, for the last few days.

Shapps said the plane was registered in Luxembourg and that “further checks” were being carried out before it might be released. “And what we won’t do is allow any Russian oligarchs to pass on that jet when it does eventually go,” he added.

Shapps was speaking shortly after Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, announced a tightening of the ban on Russian aircraft coming to the UK. “The ban includes any aircraft owned, operated or chartered by anyone connected with Russia or designated individuals or entities, and will include the power to detain any aircraft owned by persons connected with Russia,” the Foreign Office said.

I will post more from the Shapps interview shortly. Here is the agenda for the day.

9.15am: Jack Monroe, the food campaigner, and other experts give evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee on the cost of living.

10am: Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about refugees. Lawyers and charities are also giving evidence.

12pm: Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

12pm: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, gives evidence to the Commons Welsh affairs committee.

After 12.30pm: Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, and Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, are both expected to give statements to MPs, respectively about the military conflict and about oil and gas imports from Russia.

2.15pm: Lord Agnew, who resigned as a Treasury minister because he felt the government was not doing enough to tackle fraud, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.

Updated

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