Sir Keir Starmer has warned Roman Abramovich that “the clock is ticking” for him to donate the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea FC to Ukraine.
The Prime Minister told MPs on Wednesday that ministers have issued a licence allowing the proceeds from the sale of the Premier League football club to be transferred to a new foundation for humanitarian causes in Ukraine.
He said: “My message to Abramovich is this: the clock is ticking.
“Honour the commitment you made and pay up now, and if you don’t, we are prepared to go to court so every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin’s illegal war.”
Mr Abramovich sold the club in May 2022 after he was sanctioned following Vladimir Putin’s invasion earlier that year.
The oligarch had pledged to donate the proceeds from the sale to the people of Ukraine, but he has so far failed to reach an agreement with the Government on a way forward and the funds remain frozen.
Downing Street said Mr Abramovich has objected to the Government’s insistence that the money be spent exclusively in Ukraine.
Wednesday’s decision to grant a licence for the transfer is an effort to force Mr Abramovich to fulfil his promise before the Government resorts to legal action.
It is understood that the Government expects Mr Abramovich to act within the next few months, although it does not appear to have set a hard deadline.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Calum Miller said the Government should require Mr Abramovich to transfer the money by the end of the year.
He said: “This money should have helped suffering civilians across Ukraine much sooner.”
The Government previously raised the possibility of legal action in June, when Chancellor Rachel Reeves and then-foreign secretary David Lammy said they were “frustrated” by the failure to reach an agreement with Mr Abramovich.
On Wednesday, Ms Reeves said it was “unacceptable” that the money remained frozen in a UK bank and said ministers were “prepared to do what is necessary” to ensure the funds reach Ukraine.
The Treasury said ministers would consider any proposal from Mr Abramovich to voluntarily transfer the money to Ukraine.
But the department declined to say what legal mechanism it could use to force the transfer of funds.
James Clark, a partner at Quillon Law, warned legal action could create an “uncomfortable precedent for how frozen assets are handled”, suggesting taking the matter to court “risks stretching the sanctions regime beyond its intended limits”.
Under the new licence, the proceeds must go to humanitarian causes in Ukraine, while any future gains can be spent more broadly on victims of conflict around the world.
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