More refugees from Ukraine are to be allowed to join their families in the UK in what is a major climbdown by Home Secretary Priti Patel.
The Home Secretary is to announce that adult parents, grandparents, children aged over 18 and siblings of Ukrainians already in UK will be able to settle in this country.
The move comes just 24 hours after Patel flew into a storm of criticism for maintaining that only immediate family members could come citing security concerns as the reason she could not offer asylum to all Ukrainian refugees.
Boris Johnson hinted at the change in policy in a speech this morning during a trip to Poland, doubling the estimate of those who could be eligible under the family scheme.
He said: “Many people in Britain will of course want to help Ukrainian refugees. So, we will make it easier for Ukrainians already living in the UK to bring their relatives to our country, and though the numbers are hard to calculate they could be more than 200,000.”
Johnson said in addition to relatives being able to join Ukrainians in the UK there would be a scheme under which UK companies and citizens can sponsor individual refugees to come to the UK.
