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It would be “immoral and illiterate” for Britain to take in more Ukrainian refugees, a Conservative MP has claimed.Daniel Kawczynski, the MP for Shrewsbury, said people fleeing the conflict should remain in “front line” states and not travel to the UK for their own good.It comes amid increasing pressure on Britain to fall into line with the rest of Europe and welcome more people fleeing Vladimir Putin’s invasion.EU countries have introduced an open-door policy and given all Ukrainian nationals access to housing and assistance – but Britain is requiring Ukrainians to apply for visas, with some conditions relaxed.Just 300 visas were granted by the UK as of Monday, at a time when neighbouring Ireland had already admitted 1,800 people despite being remote from the warzone.The government says it will open a new channel for people to travel to Britain in the coming days – but on Wednesday night Mr Kawczynski defended the current strict approach and claimed rejecting refugees would be better for Ukraine in the long run.”British left-wing parties demand Britain takes in more Ukrainian refugees,” he said in a message posted on social media.”This is illiterate and immoral. When war is over Ukrainians will need to return home to rebuild their country. “We should be supporting Ukrainian refugees in frontline states like Poland and Romania.”Benali Hamadache, migration spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales said: “The only immoral thing is this tweet”, referring to Mr Kawczynski’s comment.The Shrewsbury MP is the latest Tory to cause outrage with comments about Ukrainian refugees. Last month immigration minister Kevin Foster faced calls to quit after appearing to suggest people fleeing the conflict could come to Britain on seasonal agricultural visas to pick fruit.Mr Kawczynski last hit the headlines in January after it emerged he had spent £22,000 of public money on taxpayer-funded Polish lessons.In 2019 the Warsaw-born MP have claimed he was an “almost fluent Polish speaker”. He defended the expenditure and said MPs were encouraged to “undertake various types of training”.The month before Mr v Kawczynski had come to media attention after leaked WhatsApp messages showed him pleading for as second job with a Saudi Arabian company in order to pay private school fees.In his pitch to a fixer he described himself as the most “pro-Saudi” member of parliament and claimed “Saudi has no better friend in UK than me”.In another message he asked for “good renumeration”, adding: “I need it to pay school fees!” The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page. More

Irish prime minister Micheál Martin has confirmed that Priti Patel told Dublin she was concerned that the country’s welcoming policy towards Ukrainian refugees would allow them to reach the UK by the back door.An anonymous briefing from a UK government source on Tuesday suggested that Ukrainian criminals or drug dealers could take advantage of the Anglo-Irish common travel area to gain access to mainland Britain.The suggestion was blasted as “disgraceful” and “absolutely terrible” by members of the Irish parliament today.And Mr Martin said that justice minister Helen McEntee had pointed out to home secretary that Ireland was part of the response of the whole EU, which has waived visas for Ukrainians fleeing Vladimir Putin’s murderous assault on their homeland.“That continues to be our position in respect of prioritising the humanitarian response, above and beyond anything else,” Mr Martin said.More than 2,500 Ukrainians, including many children, had been welcomed visa-free to the Republic by Wednesday, compared to 760 who had been granted visas to enter the UK.Mr Martin told the Dáil that in the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War “some of the norms that would characterise business-as-usual would have to be put to one side”.“This crisis is going to be so big in my view, that we have to pull out all the stops as quickly as we can as a government,” he said.An anonymous government source was quoted in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday claiming Ukrainians will be able to travel on to the UK without biometric checks because of the common travel area (CTA).“Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA,” the source said.“We’ve seen before with migrants from Albania that they have come through Dublin, into Belfast and across to the mainland to Liverpool. That’s created a drug cartel route.”But it was quickly pointed out that the visa-free CTA only applies to UK and Irish citizens, not to migrants from other countries.Simon Cox, a barrister at the Doughty Street Chambers firm, dismissed the claim as “dirty propaganda”, adding: “ Ireland has security checks on Ukrainians arriving without visas. Just as UK has for French people arriving without visas.”And the briefing provoked an angry response in the Dublin parliament, where Social Democrat MP Jennifer Whitmore said: “I think it’s disgraceful and there’s a responsibility to actually do a lot more and for them to welcome people into their country.”“Under the Common Travel Area arrangements, you have to be an Irish or British citizen to utilise that right of movement. So what has been said is completely wrong.“What it does is it creates this fear amongst people and creates division. It was incredibly irresponsible and they should never have made that statement.”Another MP, Richard Boyd Barrett said Britain’s attitude to Ukrainian refugees was “absolutely terrible”.“It really shows a considerable hypocrisy on the part of the British government, who are very keen to justify their own involvement in military alliances, but then don’t want us to extend the sort of humanitarian solidarity and refuge to people fleeing the conflict,” he told the Dáil.Mr Martin said the border with Northern Ireland will not be closed.“We have an open border with Northern Ireland, that is not going to change – be that for pandemic reasons or be that for refugee reasons,” he said.”We are not going to shut the border and the UK government will understand this in the same way as we understood it when it was coming the other way with the pandemic.”The best way is not to shut a border but to ensure you share information. That gives confidence that the security issue can be addressed.”The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page. More

Ordinary Russians are now experiencing the day-to-day consequences of the Ukraine invasion as McDonald’s and Starbucks shut their shops, Liz Truss has said.Speaking in Washington, the foreign secretary hailed the “huge action from the private sector” – which, unlike his censorship of the media, Vladimir Putin is unable to hide from his citizens.“We’ve seen huge action from the private sector, whether it’s McDonald’s or other companies,” the foreign secretary told a press conference.“One of the issues in Russia is, of course, the lack of free media – the fact that the Russian people aren’t being told the truth.“They will be seeing now – by the fact that shops are closing, they’re not able to get the goods that they were able to get – exactly the implications that Putin’s aggression in Ukraine is having for Russia.”The comments came as Ms Truss denied ever giving backing to ordinary Britons going to fight for Ukraine’s cause, despite saying it live on TV last month.“I have been very clear that the travel advice from the United Kingdom is not to go to Ukraine,” she claimed, adding: “What I said the other week was expressing support for the Ukrainian cause.”Ms Truss was speaking alongside Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, both facing renewed questions about Nato’s refusal to impose a no fly zone over Ukraine.In a fresh plea, following the bombing of a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted: “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?”But Mr Blinken said: “Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it, including potentially expanding it to Nato territory.“Otherwise, it is going to turn even deadlier, involve more people and I think potentially even make things harder to resolve in Ukraine itself.”After Ms Truss had repeated the UK’s opposition to the no fly zone, Mr Blinken added: “As the foreign secretary said, we have exactly the same perspective on that.”Ms Truss said the invasion was proof that “since the end of the Cold War we took our eye off the ball”, arguing “we must never let down our guard again”.“We’re determined to keep strengthening Nato, and urge all allies to increase their investment,” she said.“We must accelerate Nato’s modernisation and deepen our cooperation on tech and cyber. We will end strategic dependence on authoritarian regimes for our energy and for other vital resources.”The foreign secretary also said: “The reality is, across the West, we haven’t spent enough on defence for a number of years and we’ve seen a build-up of military capability from Russia in terms of both technology and numbers.”She welcomed Germany’s increasing defence spending, but – on whether the UK will follow suit – added: “I’m not going to pre-empt any future discussions between the chancellor and the defence secretary.” More

The British people are willing to suffer “hardship” in the months ahead as the UK economy takes a hit from the Ukraine crisis, a cabinet minister has said.Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the public already understood the need to endure economic sacrifices in “solidarity” with Ukrainians under attack from Vladimir Putin’s regime.It came as experts warned that the ban by Boris Johnson government on oil imports from Russia will could add to the huge hit on households struggling from a cost of living crisis.Conservative MP Desmond Swayne said the government had to be “clear” with the British people that they would have to make sacrifices while Ukrainians made “so much greater sacrifices”.Mr Kwarteng responded: “People understand. People are willing to endure hardships in solidarity with the heroic efforts that the people of Ukraine are making. People understand this in this country, because we’re a generous and giving country.”Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Johnson rejected calls to offer more help on energy cost, as Labour leader Keir Starmer warned that war in Ukraine could force a further £1,000 spike in household bills this autumn.Abby Jitendra, principle policy manager at Citizens Advice, said that British households who use oil to heat their homes will feel a pinch from oil prices, which are near historic highs.With food prices also set to soar, campaigner Jack Monroe told MPs that the impact of the cost of living crisis on the millions of children living in poverty is “going to be, in some cases, fatal”, adding: “And that’s not a term that I use lightly.”The impact of the Ukraine crisis could cut living standards in Britain by around £2,500 per household this year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.And the Resolution Foundation has said predicted that the economic fallout from Ukraine will help trigger the biggest fall in living standards for Brits since the mid-1970s – with incomes set to fall by 4 per cent in the year ahead.Petrol prices also reached record highs of over £2 per litre in London on Wednesday as sanctions against Russia and moves to divesting to other suppliers drives up fuel costs.Tory MP Bernard Jenkin challenged Mr Kwarteng on whether he understood “urgency” of the crisis and how it would impact on families and businesses. “His hope the situation will rectify itself in a few months is, I’m afraid, hopelessly naïve.”Mr Kwarteng replied: “We are facing a difficult time, and the department is fully aware of the urgency of the problem.”He told the Commons that the move to phase out Russian oil products by the end of 2022 will ensure a “smooth transition”, and pledged to establish a new taskforce to help firms find “alternative supplies”.The business secretary also said he agreed with Mr Johnson that it “didn’t necessarily make any sense” to concrete over the fracking wells in Lancashire as planned.Downing Street repeatedly declined to deny that a controversial rethink on hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in England was under way in a bid to boost energy supply.Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow minister for climate, said fracking was a “false answer to our national energy needs and there is no public support for it”, adding: “It is an outdated, dangerous and expensive and has a disastrous impact on the environment.” More

Nigel Farage’s new campaign group has accused a League One football club of a “Moscow-style rebuke to free speech” after it declined to host one of its rallies.The former Brexit Party leader is campaigning against climate action and was hoping to host a political event at a Bolton hotel owned by the club.But a statement issued by the Trotters on Monday said the rally was “not something the club and business wish to be associated with” and that it would be cancelled.Mr Farage’s group, called Vote Power Not Poverty, said in a statement on Tuesday that it was now seeking an alternative venue. “This morning we were made aware that the owners of Bolton Wanderers Football Club and the Bolton Whites Hotel had reneged on our contract to hold the first ‘Vote Power Not Povery’ Rally,” it said.”In a Moscow style-rebuke to free speech, this decision is an attempt to stifle a much needed debate on the expensive consequences of the government’s net zero plans, when there are better solutions.”The group said the decision was “difficult to understand” and claimed “wealthy owners of football clubs may not care about ordinary people”.The concluded: “We remain grateful for the incredible support we’re getting from all parts of our great country.”A statement issued by Bolton Wanderers said: “A ‘Vote Power Not Poverty’ Rally scheduled for later this month at the Bolton Whites Hotel will not be happening.“The event has been cancelled by BWFC and is not something the club and business wish to be associated with.”Some British right-wingers have started to organise against the government’s commitment to reaching net zero carbon, arguing that averting climate change will increase bills.But the Committee on Climate Change has dismissed this arguments and says investment in green energy is in fact the best way to bring down bills – and that new fossil fuel drilling will not help.Scientists say reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest is a requirement to avert catastrophic climate change in the coming decades.In 2014 Mr Farage named Vladimir Putin as the leader he most admired, praising the Russian president’s skills as an “operator” and citing his “brilliant” handling of the civil war in Syria. More

The return of fracking will be explored as part of plans to boost the UK’s energy security following the invasion of Ukraine, No 10 has said.An “energy security strategy” – to be set out by Boris Johnson next week – will consider lifting the current ban on drilling for shale gas.“It’s clear that we need to move away from reliance on Russian hydrocarbons, so everybody would expect the prime minister to look at all options,” his spokesperson said.The move – which will be popular with many Tory backbenchers – follows the announcement that the UK will ban Russian oil imports in an effort to tighten the financial screw on Moscow. The hunt is now on for alternative sources of energy that are “less vulnerable to the whims of a dictator”, as one government source has put it, in reference to Vladimir Putin.Trial fracking sites in Lancashire that are due to be concreted over in just a week’s time could now be used for further research, it has emerged. However, experts strongly dispute whether fracking can meaningfully contribute to having more diversified energy sources, given the difficulty of extracting the UK’s reserves of shale gas.Iain Conn, the former boss of the energy firm Centrica, warned it will would not be “possible to drill enough wells to be able to make a material difference to the UK’s supplies”.Ministers were forced to impose a moratorium on fracking in 2019 when experts warned that it was not possible to predict accurately the danger of earth tremors from the controversial extraction process.Drilling was blamed for minor earthquakes, including a 2.9 magnitude tremor near Blackpool in August 2019, which led to the suspension of operations.Scotland and Wales had already turned their backs on fracking, which involves releasing natural gas from deep underground by blasting a mixture of water and chemicals into shale rock deposits.Greenpeace ridiculed the idea of a U-turn, its head of energy Rosie Rogers saying: “After a decade of hype and bluster, all the fracking industry has given us are two holes in a muddy field and some minor earthquakes.“Trying to restart fracking now would only mean wasting more time when we have little. It will take many years to develop, and if it ever gets produced, it will be sold to the highest bidder on the international market, with no impact on our energy bills.”But the No 10 spokesperson, asked about the looming new strategy, 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.”The new strategy could also see the Conservatives loosen their opposition to onshore windfarms, by relaxing current restrictions. More

Ukraine ambassador to Britain has revealed that he struggled to get a visa for his wife to come with him to Britain when he was appointed.Vadym Prystaiko said the UK’s immigration policy had been bureaucratic and out of line with the rest of Europe “even before the war”.It comes as the UK refuses to grant open door entry to Ukrainians fleeting the Russian invasion of their country, even as the rest of Europe drops all entry requirements. Mr Prystaiko, a former foreign minister and ex head of his country’s mission to Nato, assumed office as ambassador to the UK in July 2020.Describing the evolution of the UK’s visa process for Ukrainians he said:”You used to produce visas in Ukraine in Kyiv, which allows all Ukrainians to get one, but that’s the biggest-by-territory nation in Europe. So even travelling to one particular place was hassle already.”Then you moved it to Poland years ago. It was much more difficult to get to Poland. Then you moved it all the way to these islands. To process visas it was always bureaucratic hassles.”Turning to his own experience, he told MPs on the Home Affairs select committee: “I have to tell you that even when I was coming here as ambassador, I got my visa on time, and although I was already approved by your government for half a year, my wife didn’t have it. So even simple things like that, bureaucracy is so tough.”Mr Prystaiko also contrasted the UK’s approach with the Schengen visa zone, which has given Ukrainians visa free entry for tourism purposes for around a decade. Britain has enjoyed visa free tourist entry to Ukraine since 2005.”When we reached agreement for a visa free regime with Europeans, which worked quite beautifully for almost 10 years we never managed to open this particular nation,” he said.”I know that you have strict immigration policies but all Europeans also have them at the same time. We opened up for your citizens in 2005!”UK government has said it will only grant visas to Ukrainian refugees with family connections or sponsorship by a third party. Immigration ministers have suggested people could be pretending to be Ukrainian and that they might consider coming to Britain on work visas to pick fruit.The approach has sparked anger in other countries, with France’s interior minister accusing the British government of a “lack of humanity”.The European Union has activated a special law which will allow all people fleeing the conflict to access housing and other public services for an initial period of three years. They will not be asked to apply for asylum or visas.The latest official stats suggested 300 Ukrainians have been granted visas to come to Britain – dwarfed by the two million who have actually fled the country. Poland hosts 1.2 million and the UK’s neighbour Ireland has taken 2,000 people so far, with its government saying it expects to take between 80,000 and 100,000 people in total. More

Vladimir Putin has “singled out” the UK as the global leader on sanctions imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson has said.The prime minister sparked jeers and laughter from the Labour benches at PMQs when he claimed Moscow was particularly angry at Britain because his government was “in the lead” on retaliatory measures.“The Kremlin has single out the UK for being in the lead on global sanctions, and in leading the world in defiance of the odious war Putin is leading in Ukraine,” Mr Johnson said.The prime minister came under pressure to take more action to crack down on the influence on Russia-linked oligarchs and so-called “dirty money” in the UK.Mr Johnson suggested that the government would kick out wealthy Russians in the UK if they were to appear on a sanctions list.Senior Conservative MP John Penrose praised the government for ending so-called “golden visas” for wealthy entrepreneurs – but asked if the government will remove visas given to Russian oligarchs living in the UK.Mr Penrose, the PM’s anti-corruption adviser, said: “Will he pledge that anyone who is put on the sanctions list on the coming days and is already on the UK on a golden visa will have it ripped up so they can be thrown out?”The prime minister said the Economic Crime Bill – set to become law next week – would mean the government would be “able to whip aside the veil of anonymity” and “the ownership of these luxurious dwellings will be exposed”.Mr Johnson added: “And yes, we will be able to take away their ability to remain in this country.”Foreign secretary Liz Truss admitted on Monday that the UK had been “slower” than the US and EU in imposing sanctions against individuals with links to the Putin regime.The cabinet minister blamed peers for adding “cumbersome” amendments to the UK’s Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2018, aimed at replicating much of the EU’s sanction regime.“We had a group of lawyers and peers in the House of Lords who pushed for more cumbersome amendments that really put a very high bar on our lawyers,” Ms Truss told the committee.It comes as the government impounded a private jet suspected of being linked to a Russian oligarch at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire hours before it was due to fly to Dubai.Transport secretary Grant Shapps said airport operators can now detain a Russian aircraft, or one suspected of being chartered by a Russian, after sanctions law was tightened.The jet will only be allowed to leave Farnborough if no link with Russia is established, according to a government source.Meanwhile, Mr Johnson came under pressure to “reset” his response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis – with renewed calls for the government tow waive visa requirements.Senior Tory MP Julian Smith called for a more “humane” response, while the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said ministers had overseen “one of the slowest, most bureaucratic and incompetent responses in the whole of Europe”.The prime minister also rejected calls to offer more help on energy cost in response to the Ukraine crisis, as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer warned that war could force a further £1,000 spike in household bills this autumn. More