Starmer welcomes new sanctions against Russia but tells PM “go further”

Keir Starmer has welcomed newly unveiled sanctions against Russia after troops were sent into ‘breakaway’ regions of Ukraine – but the Labour leader has urged the UK government today “to go further”.

Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognise the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine and to send in troops is the “pretext to a full-scale offensive”.

“We must now brace ourselves for the next possible stages of Putin’s plan,” the Prime Minister said, before announcing that five Russian banks and three high-net-worth individuals would be affected by new sanctions.

Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, the individuals will be banned from travelling to the UK, and all UK individuals and entities will be prohibited from having dealings with the three Russian individuals, Johnson told MPs.

“This is the first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do. We hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed alongside the United States and European Union if the situation escalates still further,” Johnson said.

The Labour leader responded in the chamber, saying: “I welcome the sanctions introduced today.” But he added that “we must be prepared to go further” because “a threshold has already been breached”.

“A sovereign nation has been invaded in a war of aggression based on lies and fabrications. If we do not respond with a full set of sanctions now, Putin will once again take away the message that the benefits of aggression outweigh the costs,” Starmer said.

He proposed that “Russia should be excluded from financial mechanisms like Swift and we should ban trading in Russian sovereign debt” and “Russia Today should be prevented from broadcasting its propaganda around the world”.

Noting that “Russian money has been allowed to influence our politics”, Starmer called for an “end to oligarch impunity”, for the UK to “admit mistakes have been made” and for the current situation to represent “a turning point”.

Johnson responded to Starmer’s statement by thanking him for Labour’s support for sanctions and remarking that “the change in the approach taken by the opposition” over the past two years is “massively beneficial”.

Starmer used a Guardian article earlier this month to criticise the Stop the War Coalition, of which Jeremy Corbyn is deputy president, as “naive” and as giving “succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies”.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey offered a similar response to that advanced by Starmer. He urged Johnson to freeze and begin seizing “the assets of Putin’s cronies” in the UK and to “expel these oligarchs from our country”.

Davey also demanded that the decision to cut UK armed forces by 10,000 troops be reversed and that international and sporting events being hosted in Russia should no longer be tolerated.

Below is the full text of Keir Starmer’s statement on sanctions against Russia today.

Yesterday was a dark day for Europe. The Russian President denied the right of a sovereign nation to exist. Unilaterally recognised separatist movements that he sponsors and who seek to dismember Ukraine. And then, under the cover darkness, sent in troops to enforce his will.

Putin appears determined to plunge Ukraine into a wider war. We must all stand firm in our support for Ukraine. We support the freedom of her people and their right to determine their own future without the gun of an imperialist held to their head.

There can be no excuses for Russia’s actions. And there is no justification for this aggression. A war in Ukraine will be bloody, it will needlessly cost lives and history will rightly scorn Putin as the aggressor.

Putin claims to fear NATO expansion but Russia faces no conceivable threat from allied troops or from Ukraine. What he fears is openness and democracy. He knows that given a choice, people will not choose to live under the rule of an erratic and violent authoritarian.

So, we must remain united and true to our values across this House and with our NATO allies. We must show Putin that we will not be divided.

I welcome the sanctions introduced today. And the international community’s efforts to unite with a collective response. However, we must be prepared to go further.

I understand the tactic of holding back further sanctions on Putin and his cronies. To try and deter an invasion of the rest of Ukraine. But a threshold has already been breached.

A sovereign nation has been invaded in a war of aggression based on lies and fabrications. If we do not respond with a full set of sanctions now, Putin will once again take away the message that the benefits of aggression outweigh the costs.

So we will work with the Prime Minister and our international allies to ensure that more sanctions are introduced.

• Russia should be excluded from financial mechanisms like Swift and we should ban trading in Russian sovereign debt.
• Putin’s campaign of misinformation should be tackled. Russia Today should be prevented from broadcasting its propaganda around the world.
• And we should work with our European allies to ensure that the Nordstream 2 pipeline is cancelled.

Whatever the sequencing of the sanctions, this won’t be easy. Britain must work with our European allies to handle any disruption in the supply of energy and raw materials.

We must defend ourselves and our allies against cyber-attacks. We must bring together the widest possible coalition of nation to condemn this action against a sovereign UN member state.

Ukrainians are defending their own country and democracy in Europe. We must stand ready with further support for Ukraine to defend itself and we must stand ready to do more to reassure and reinforce NATO allies in Eastern Europe.

But we must also get our own house in order. The Prime Minister said the lesson from Russia’s 2014 invasion of Donbass is that “you can’t just let Vladimir Putin get away with it”. Until now, we have.

We have failed to stop the flow of illicit Russian finance into Britain. A cottage industry does the bidding of those linked to Putin and Russian money has been allowed to influence our politics.

We have to admit mistakes have been made. We have to act to rectify them. This must be a turning point.

An end to oligarch impunity. We need to draw a line on Companies House providing easy cover for shell companies. We need to ensure our anti-money laundering laws are enforced, we need to crack down on spies. And we have to make sure money isn’t pouring into UK politics from abroad.

Russian aggression has now torn up both the Minsk Protocol and the Budapest memorandum. But even at this late hour, we must pursue diplomatic routes to prevent further conflict. So can the Prime Minister tell us what international diplomatic efforts are ongoing and what role will the UK have in this process?

Mr Speaker, we know Putin’s playbook. He seeks division, so we must stay united. He believes the benefits of aggression outweigh the consequences, so we must take a stand. And he believes the West is too corrupted to do the right thing, so we must prove him wrong.

I believe we can. And I offer the support of the Opposition in that vital endeavour.