SANCTIONS on Russian oil have not been lifted "in any way whatsoever", the Prime Minister has insisted amid fury after rules were relaxed on refined crude imports.
Keir Starmer said the “strong new package” of sanctions which were quietly unveiled on Tuesday evening go “well beyond” existing measures.
A trade licence which allows for the import of jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries amid surging costs due to the Iran war came into effect on Wednesday.
It has been heavily criticised by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch who said it is “insane” to water down sanctions when the UK Government is refusing to fully exploit North Sea resources.
The Labour chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Emily Thornberry, also criticised the move.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support.
“They have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand, given that we promised that 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.”
The sanctions were imposed as part of measures targeting Vladimir Putin’s economy after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A trade licence permits the imports “indefinitely”.
Jack Middleton, the SNP MSP for Aberdeen Central, described the move as a "disgusting insult" to Scottish North Sea workers.
"Labour would rather give Vladimir Putin a handout than support those Scottish workers – let that sink in," he said.
"Scotland is an energy superpower and projects like Jackdaw and Rosebank are ready to go if Labour would end its mission to kill off the North Sea.
"Jackdaw alone would boost domestic gas production almost immediately and heat around 1.4 million homes this winter – creating thousands of Scottish jobs while giving the UK greater energy resilience at a critical moment for European stability.
"Turning our backs on domestic energy resources won’t reduce demand for oil and gas overnight. It simply increases reliance on imports from murderous regimes like Putin’s and puts thousands of Scottish jobs on the scrapheap.
"Labour should stop pandering to ideology, back Scotland’s energy sector, and put our national security first."
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Badenoch accused the Government of having “snuck out an announcement that it was removing sanctions on Russian oil”.
Starmer replied: “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.
“We also 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.
“So, 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.”
