Priti Patel sparked new chaos today by finally announcing Ukrainians can get visas near Calais - but not yet.
The Home Secretary told MPs "we have set up" a "bespoke" visa application centre "en route" to Calais after families had to travel to Paris or Brussels to give biometric data like fingerprints.
But minutes later, she claimed she had never said that - and suggested it was not ready. She told MPs: "I actually said that I can confirm we are setting up another VAC en route to Calais. I made that quite clear in my remarks earlier on.”
Britain's response to Europe's fastest refugee crisis this century was already in chaos amid "inaccurate" figures, and Ms Patel suggesting she would set up a third refugee scheme only for No10 to contradict her.
Meanwhile, refugees arriving at one centre in Calais were met with the message: "NO VISAS DELIVERED IN CALAIS."
It came as a desperate builder spoke of his devastation after rescuing his wife and children from Ukraine but being banned from getting them into the UK.
Vitalie Turetska has been living and working in north London for the past three years.
When Russia started bombing his home country he jumped in his car and drove to the Ukraine/Romania border to get wife and Helena and sons Danya, six and two-year-old Mapk.
They are just some of the 1.5 million refugees who have already fled the terror in their home country.
But now they are stranded in Calais after British authorities refused to let them cross the Channel.
Vitalie said he was told he was allowed to return but he would have to leave his wife and kids behind in France because, in his words, "they don’t have the correct paperwork".
Meanwhile Ms Patel admitted her own department's visa statistics for fleeing Ukrainians were "absolutely inaccurate". She said the claim 50 people had been awarded visas - which sparked outrage - was wrong.
The Home Secretary told the House of Commons the first set of confirmed figures will be announced tonight.
Some 37 MPs from the Conservative 'One Nation' group wrote to Boris Johnson tonight demanding he go further with help for refugees.
Prominent One Nation member Jeremy Hunt said: "1.7 million people have now fled and no one could possibly argue they don't have good cause."
The MPs wrote: "This is not another migration crisis - this is a crisis of war.
"This should not be business as usual, we need sincere and immediate support for the Ukrainian people."
And Ms Patel was confronted by a furious Tory MP - who raised people who came to Britain from Uganda. Ms Patel's own parents moved to the UK from Uganda in the 1960s, before Idi Amin later seized power and expelled Ugandan Asians.
Sir Roger Gale told her: “I have been told that people arriving at Calais are being told they have to go to Paris or Brussels to get visas. Is that correct or not?
"In 1972 we took into Kent thousands of Ugandan Asians. We did it almost overnight and without any difficulty at all.
"Last Monday she told me she would cut away the red tape. Why aren’t we doing it?”
Ms Patel said: "We have staff in Calais. We have support on the ground. It is wrong to say we are just turning people back”
She said there must not be “choke points in Calais”, adding: "I can confirm we have set up a bespoke VAC (Visa Application Centre) en route to Calais - but away from the port because we have to prevent that surge taking place."
But Ms Patel later suggested the centre hadn't actually been set up yet, saying: “I actually said that I can confirm we are setting up another VAC en route to Calais. I made that quite clear in my remarks earlier on.” She did not.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The Home Office website is still telling people to go to Paris. Journalists who are in Calais and looking for any centre that there might be are still unable to find anything.
"All they can find is a few Home Office staff in a building with a crisp machine but no visas.
"One family there this afternoon who have been there for five days have been told they cannot get an appointment in Paris until March 15. What on earth is going on?”
It came after Boris Johnson said he was "not sure" the claim that 50 family visas had been granted by 10am on Sunday was correct - despite the fact it was briefed to journalists by the Home Office.
The Home Office had said 5,535 online applications had been completed, 2,368 had booked a visa appointment, 11,750 had started but not finished an online application, and 50 visas had been granted.
But Ms Patel said: "The figures that are public are absolutely inaccurate and they have not been assured by the Home Office."
A full family visa scheme for Ukrainians opened on Friday allowing applications from immediate family; extended family; and immediate family members of extended family.
Immediate family are a spouse or civil partner, unmarried partner in a cohabiting relationship for two or more years, a child under 18, a parent if their child in the UK is under 18, or a fiancee or proposed civil partner.
Extended family include grown-up children or their parents, grandparents, grandchildren or partners’ grandchildren, and brothers and sisters.
Home Office guidance recommends people apply for a visa “in a nearby country” to Ukraine after fleeing over the border - naming Hungary, Moldova, Poland and Romania.
People are asked to complete an application online, travel to the visa centre to give details like fingerprints, then remain in the area until their application is processed.
But France accused the UK of a "lack of humanity", saying 150 refugees had travelled to Calais but been told they had to apply at the nearest visa centre - in Paris or Brussels.
Furious Priti Patel went on the offensive yesterday, saying the French government was "wrong" and "the British Government is not turning anybody around or turning anybody back at all."
Questioned by the Mirror, however, the Home Office repeatedly failed to clarify if there was a visa processing centre in Calais as Ms Patel suggested.
Eventually, No10 admitted this lunchtime: "I don’t believe there’s one there now, but we’ll keep it under review.”
Meanwhile Ms Patel faces furious pressure to speed up help for Ukrainians who do not have family links to the UK.
There are two routes - the first is a Ukraine Family Scheme for people with family already in the UK to live, work, use the NHS claim benefits for three years.
The second is a Local Sponsorship Scheme for firms, charities or individuals to bring in Ukrainians for an "initial" 12 months and look after their housing.
That second scheme will have no need for family links and no cap on numbers.
But it isn't launched yet, no one knows yet how it will work, and details will only be announced later this week.
Priti Patel last night suggested a third scheme, saying: "I'm urgently escalating our response to the growing humanitarian crisis. I am now investigating the legal options to create a humanitarian route. This means anyone without ties to the UK fleeing the conflict in Ukraine will have a right to come to this nation."
But No10 later claimed she was just talking about the second scheme that's already been announced. A third scheme has not been totally ruled out.
