Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of buying “dirty Russian oil” after the UK quietly relaxed sanctions on Moscow in a move which critics fear will be a major boost to Vladimir Putin.
The move has been condemned by senior Labour figures and branded “insane” by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who told the prime minister he should be “ashamed” that British money “will be used to fund the killing of Ukrainian soldiers”.
The government previously said it would block Russian oil refined in third countries in a bid to “further restrict the flow of funds to the Kremlin”.
But, with prices surging as a result of the Iran war, Sir Keir has shifted his stance and will now allow imports of jet fuel and diesel made from Russian oil and refined in other countries.
The prime minister insisted he is not lifting sanctions on Russian oil “in any way whatsoever” during a fiery Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), but Ms Badenoch said: “Labour are giving money to Russia, Reform are taking money from Russia.
“He [Starmer] is now choosing to buy dirty Russian oil, that money will be used to fund the killing of Ukrainian soldiers. Isn’t he ashamed?”
The Tory leader earlier described the move as “insane”, coming as energy secretary Ed Miliband is blocking drilling for oil and gas reserves in the North Sea.
Ministers have sought to defend the measures as “protecting the UK national interest” with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East causing costs to soar.
Senior Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, hit out at the government’s decision and said the people of Ukraine have been“very let down” by the move.
“We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support,” Dame Emily told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“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.”
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said the decision puts a “question mark” over the UK’s friendship with Ukraine, as he warned it shows Russia that “everything can be bought and everything is at sale”.
“I’m deeply disappointed,” he said. “One of the things which we felt in Ukraine very strongly was that United Kingdom was always supporting Ukraine on the very high level, and we were appreciating it very much. And that was important part of our resilience, knowing that there are real true friends in countries like UK, which supported us really seriously.
“And now that this decision puts it on the question mark because I really can’t understand it. I think it’s a wrong decision. I think that shows to Russia that in the end of the day, everything can be bought and everything is at sale.”
Former defence secretary Grant Shapps told The Independent that the “embarrassing carve-out” was a “direct consequence” of the government’s energy policies.
“A country serious about resilience would be producing more of its own energy, not creating the conditions for these kinds of embarrassing carve-outs,” he said.
Lord Walney, the former Labour MP who previously served as Sir Keir’s independent adviser on political violence, told The Independent: “It’s completely wrong. It sends the opposite signal to the one the government should be sending, which is actually to be more active and coordinated in the shadow Russian and Iranian oil campaign. Because these campaigns are interlinked and they directly fund malign activity here in the UK. And you cannot compromise national security to get a few quid off an easyJet flight.”
John Foreman, associate fellow on the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, called the decision “appalling”, and warned it will “do little for UK consumers” while letting down Ukraine.
“Starmer has posed self-righteously as the leader of the coalition of the willing for two years, but under pressure he has caved,” he told The Independent.
“A combination of moral vacuity and energy policy incompetence. Ukraine sacrificed on Ed Miliband’s high altar of net zero.”
Sir Keir risked opening a fresh rift with Donald Trump earlier this year by vowing that Britain wouldn’t be following the US in lifting sanctions on Russian oil, saying that the move risks helping Putin’s “war machine”.
Just two months later, however, ministers are being forced to defend the decision to ease restrictions on Russian oil.
Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said: “When there are international conflicts, we’ve just been talking about the conflict in Iran, talking about the conflict in Russia … what we have to do as a government is make sure that we’re protecting the UK national interest, making sure that this impact of conflicts that wash up on our shore, that we’re protecting individual families.”
A new trade licence allows these imports “indefinitely” and specifies that the sanctions carve-out will be periodically reviewed as fuel prices continue to rise.
The change in policy comes as new figures show petrol prices have eclipsed the previous high set during the Iran war.
The RAC said the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts stands at 158.5p, which is the most expensive it has been since December 2022. The previous highest price during the conflict in the Middle East has been 158.3p on 15 April.
